It's 2012! Nothing's gonna stop us now!

Happy Effing New Year!

It's 9:21pm eastern standard time. I'm in my pajamas on my grandparents' couch, belly full of homemade hor'dourves and treats I made with my mom, heart full of laughs and stories from the family board games, body and eyes tired from the day. I'm pretty much ready for bed. A lot may not change in a year, but a lot changes over the years. That's for damn sure! A few years ago I wouldn't have been caught dead on a couch at 9:21pm on New Year's Eve, and if I was, I was either passed out or feeling horribly sorry for myself. Tonight I am neither of those things. I'm just content. I feel grateful and pretty happy...and older. I feel older. I guess that is a given with each coming year, we will age. Hopefully we'll learn something new. But we will most definitely get a few more wrinkles and aches & pains. Tonight, I'm ok with that, because I don't feel as dumb as I used to be. Amen.

I was sitting across from my 80 year old grandparents tonight. They've lived through 80 New year's eve celebrations. I asked them which one was the most memorable. They didn't bat an eye. They both had the same answer, without a doubt, 1947. I asked what they were doing that night, way back when. They had been invited to an old navy friend's party in Newton, MA. Pa knew the guy from the war, but neither of them knew any of the other people at the party. His date, Lois, my Bre, didn't know anyone either, so they decided to sit out on the front porch and talk. They sat out there all night long, falling in love, and dreaming about their future together. They hoped they would have a nice house with a porch like his friend's someday. Everything seemed possible. They were starkly awake and intoxicated with each other and their dreams. Soon after that, they got married, and 65 years later, here they are cozied up next to each other, just as in love as ever. Maybe not as optimistic and naive, but still as sweet on each other and as hopeful as they were that night in 1947.

We played the board game Apples to Apples and they couldn't help but choose each other's cards, over and over. They got a kick out of it. How they're brains work the same way. How much they enjoy helping the other win. I truly believe the dreams that they had that night in 1947 came true. It's awesome.

I may not be on a porch counting the stars and falling in love tonight, but I feel just as hopeful. I feel that the future is bright! I have hopes and dreams, and I finally know what they are. I have a vision of what I would like my life to be, and it makes me happy. That's progress. The future looks mighty grand when you've learned who you are and have decided to get out of your own way! Literally nothing is impossible in 2012. NOTHING! I don't believe that the universe is here to serve my beck & call, but I believe that it is not standing in my way. I am the only thing that can do that, and I'm over that game.

2012 can be the year that the stars align. Why not? What's stopping them?

It could also be the year that shit hits the fan. Why not? What's stopping it!

But either way, I can meet the new year with hope in my heart. I can be open to new experiences. I can give up my old ideas and habits and meet the dawn like a 19 year old on a porch step, falling in love for the first time, anticipating the adventure of the coming year!