The Year of Here

The boys and I got a book from the library recently called Now It Is Winter. It's about a little mouse who wants to know if spring will ever come, who wonders if he will get to do all those things that spring brings ever again. His mother assures him that spring will come, but that winter has so many things that only winter brings so he should enjoy them now. Snow angels. Ice skating. Snowmen. Eating oatmeal with brown sugar.

At the end of the story, the mother says, "Now is the blessing. Now is the time to love. Now is the time to be."

Those words resonated with me because I've been thinking about what I want this year to be for me. Who do I want to be at the end of this year? What do I want to have accomplished?

This is the year of here.

"Now is the blessing. Now is the time to love. Now is the time to be."

Here. present wherever I am. thankful for where I am. not distracted. not wishing to be somewhere else. or someone else. content. with who I am. and where I am. fully engaged. present for my children and husband.

"I profane this moment when I won’t stay in it.

I desecrate now when I dismiss it in my push for the next."

-(Ann Voskamp, aholyexperience.com)

I don't want to always be pushing for the next moment. I don't want to wish my kids would grow up just a little bit faster or wish we lived in Texas when we don't. I just want to be here where God has put me. And do the things He has planned for me. Give my children the mother they deserve.

And not always be wanting things to be different.

Live in the HERE and now.