I’ll spare you the mundanely poignant retrospective of 2003. If you are anything like me, you are rather tired of the year-end rehashes. (I mean re-caps.)

If forced to sum up the year, I guess I would say something like, “Some year, huh?”

Strange, that a person (me) who naturally reflects on everything hates media reflections of the past. I find them less sentimental and more sappy. The “major events” and “news-making moments” are turned into snip-its and sound bites. I turn the channel; flip the page.

It has to do with the detached, time-line quality of those “look backs.”

This blew up. So and so died. Somebody was elected. Bombings began. So and so died. They got engaged. They didn’t get married. Shock and awe this. Major conflict that. Casualties continue. They kissed on TV. Mass burials found here. So and so captured in a spider hole…

On Christmas Eve I sat in my living room, wondering what was the racket I was hearing? I checked with my Mom, who was in my kitchen. She assured me that she wasn’t banging anything about. Dad had run to the store, so he wasn’t causing the ruckus. I walked back down the hall, and realized, “it’s the bells!”

I live surrounded by churches. I can see two from the living room, and one from the back patio. All of their bells were going off at the same time. It was so loud and so peaceful. Pictures on the mantel were jingling, ornaments on the tree swayed and the bottoms of my feet tickled from the vibrating of the floor.

In the loudness of the stillness I quietly reveled in the birth of my Saviour, reflected on the happenings of the year as they meant to me, and celebrated what was to come.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye, adieu.

And another year begins. I look with excitement to the future; to the now. If the past is any indicator, I predict 2004 to be filled with “surprises.”

There will be several events which will be huge and wonderful for me. My head will get all big and swelled up with pride and astonishment with myself. I’ll get let down a couple or so times. I’ll fall in and out of love six to eight times. I’ll get sad once, for about three weeks. I’ll get a cold. I’ll change my hair.

But when it all happens, it will be a big surprise at the time.

Here are three things I’ll say to myself in 2004:

I would never have expected that!

I saw that coming.

I should have known that would happen.

Seriously, ya’ll. I. Am. Excited. Because there is nothing else to be. Life and its loud bells that vibrate the floor and tickle my toes, its resonance that causes things to jingle, is exciting.

Of course it isn’t always easy. But should it be?

My only resolution for 2004 is to LIVE (in all capital letters). To enjoy this great life that God has given me to its fullest, and to not forget the great expectation that comes along with it. To not just go through the motions, but to cause motion.

Steve can be reached at xersizing@yahoo.com

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