Happy New Year!

For some years now I have picked a word(s) instead of making a new years resolution list. They never seemed to work, those lists... but the words, well I can do that.
Usually my word or words are easy ones, at least for me. Gratitude, joy, happiness, etc. Yesterday while reading some blogs I read this post by Tracey at Clover... Embrace. Now that is a good word, a word that might have to be worked on. I love that word. I might be steeling that word for myself, adding to my own word... Surrender. Not in a weak sort of way, but in the "I am just done with fighting over every little thing" sort of way. Giving in, letting go, being at peace, being in a place of acceptance, balance, love, joy, gratitude... those are hard to see/feel when you are constantly fighting with life.
SO in 2013 I am surrendering to life, and embracing it. Both arms open wide, my heart out on my sleeve, my mind open, my mouth shut (ok, that might be a hard one for me), my ears open... i am ready to embrace this coming year, all the challenges, all the joys, all the wonderful, wild, amazing things life has to offer me.
And the "Jar of Blessings" which I saw on Facebook and also read about on this blog Moonroot. Now there is a great idea, place it right there on the dinner table, every one can add a slip of paper to it, and at the end of the year you sit down and read all the stuff that happened, all the great things. Even a bad year can have some bright spots, this would be a good way to remember all those those wonderful things.
It can be so easy to forget how amazing life can be, how precious a gift it is, how fragile it is, how full of miracles. My dear friend said yesterday "Life is 1% the things that happen to you and 99% how you see it" (or something like that). And you know, it is so true. Life can give you a crappy hand sometimes, but in the end it is how you deal with that hand, how you see the gift of life, how you over come the challenges, how you rise up and face your life, embrace it,  how you surrender to it, I guess that is really how your life is... not so much what happens to you, but how you choose to see what happens to you.
May you walk in beauty in 2013.