I walked outside last night to lock my girls in the coop for the night. The minute I stepped out of our garage door and walked across the driveway I noticed how still it was. The wind had died down, there were no traffic sounds and all I heard, as I walked, was the crunch of gravel under my feet.
The sky was darkening quickly and the horizon was displaying the last light of day in a thin yellow ribbon. Evergreen trees in the backyard were silhouettes against the coming dark of night. It was truly the space of time between day and night where the world lies hushed and waiting…..hanging onto the old day and yet ready to give way to something new.
These last few days of 2016 are rather like that space of time. We are busy trying to wrap up the old year while our thoughts are beginning to focus on what the new one will bring. The past year brings back so many thoughts and memories. Things we did accomplish….things we did not get done. New people we have met and friends and family that we will not meet this side of heaven again. New jobs, new hairdos, new additions to our families …….changes…. sweet and some bittersweet.
Some of last year we cannot wait to be rid of. Plans that did not work out and caused us pain. Memories we might like to toss out…. like the Christmas tree after the season. Some memories are not quite so easy to toss out. Some consequences must be lived with.
Some memories we will hold onto tightly. We will keep them close and cherish them. The time we spent with people we love and who love us are like pictures in our minds that we can “see” and just smile at the memory. These are things that time cannot erase.
Last year brought some wonderful things. At least into my life. My children encouraged me to blog and I have met some amazing, wonderful people while doing so. The kids just grin when I speak of some of you; as if I saw you just yesterday; when in reality I have never met you in person.
I have been privileged to share in your lives and have been thoroughly blessed by that fact. I have been honored to pray for you during this past year and look forward to doing that in the coming new year.
So many thoughts can run through my head as I stand outside watching the day turn to night. Thoughts of people and their lives, their hurts and their joys. Thoughts of places I have been this past year and places I hope to go in the coming year. Thoughts of things accomplished and things still on my to do list when it comes to faith, home, health, relationships and fun.
That space of time between day and night is a great place to pause and reflect. It is a place of hushed, reverent wonder. It is a place where the soul can dance. It is a place to offer your thoughts and prayers for peace when it comes to certain memories and thanks for others. It is a place to ask for renewal in the year to come.
My prayer for all of you in this coming year is joy, peace and hope. May you have joy in the everyday things, peace in adversity, and hope in every breath you take. May you be blessed and may your soul dance…..
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:18-19
All the best to You and Yours and the chickens! Hope you have a wonderful 2017.
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The best to you also Margie!! I expect 2017 to be to have it’s ups and downs…..hopefully more ups!
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What beautiful thoughts you had for this time of transition! I am so happy to have found you, and I look forward to every post with your name on it. God bless you!
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I am so glad that God put us in each other’s path. I am blessed so much by you.
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Ditto!
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Loved this post Faye. I loved your thoughts and thought you were directly speaking to me and the trouble I had gone through recently. There is hope for the worst of us and also the best of us in the new year- it is up to us to either look forward or look behind. I am trying to look forward and learn from the gentle lesson the Lord taught me.
I am thankful that through Anne Mehrling, I came to your blog and enjoyed reading every bit of it, the sound advice, the gentle old world charm, the peace of a world that was and can still be, if we would only choose it to be.
Happy New Year, Faye !
Susie
PS : Your blog is a blessing to many especially to those overseas.
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Thank you so much! You are also a blessing to me Susie and I am glad Anne brought us together.
I have a feeling that there are many of us who are learning lessons from the Lord. Years ago my sister gave me a verse from Isaiah 43:2 New Living Translation
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you” She pointed out that it said “when” and not “if” I also love the reminder that we do not go alone.
I pray that every hardship in the next year shows a clear blessing that is waiting!
Happy New Year to you Susie!
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always a lovely post. I feel as you do-the world is full of beautiful people-and you are one of them. Of course, your song choice is one of my favorites ever. Happy new Year dear one!
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I am blessed by you! That song is one I tell my kids that I pray for them and one of my favorites as well. Happy New Year to you my friend.
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Me too! xoxoxo
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Oh Faye you write the most thoughtful words. You create such imagery and fill me with peace and hope. You are a very special woman and I’m so glad we found each other too. You are such an inspiration, I love the way you look at the world and how you translate a moment in time to so much more. Wishing you, your hubby and family the most wonderful New Year filled with wishes and dreams come true and new ones discovered!! Much love to you Faye!! Happy New Year!! xo
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Thank you so much Deb. I just am always grateful when the thoughts in my head make it out through my fingertips. (They sometimes get stuck along the way.)
I really believe God puts messages out there for us to read if we just open our eyes and our hearts.
May you and your family be blessed in the coming year. Your posts are always so inspiring to me and I am so grateful.
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Thank you Faye! I believe the same. I often sit here when thinking of what to post next and ask God “ok what do you want me to tell them today?” and then it comes…I should credit Him on my posts down below where I put my copyright…Lol!! Looking forward to sharing 2017 with you and your wonderful stories and inspirations. xo
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Absolutely lovely. And yes, here’s to our souls dancing every day of the New Year!
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Yes to our souls dancing every day! May you be blessed!
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Such a wonderful post – you are so good at weaving a story – its as if I was there with you as you stepped outside. Loved the song. I lost my sister this year and I know this is part of life. We need to look forward, live and love, because we never know how long we will have those we care for with us. We never know how much longer we will be on this earth. Here is to a wonderful year (2017) for your family and mine (and all of our blogging friends). xxxx
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I am so sorry about your sister Peggy. I have a feeling there are many things around you that bring good memories of her back to you.
May you be blessed in this coming New Year.
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Memories are a blessing from God. I know many people have wonderful memories of those they have lost. I sit here at 5:45 a. m. in 2017. My husband is still sleeping. I thank God for blessing me and letting me see the arrival of 2017. We will attend church this morning and worship God, what a blessing to live in a country where we can do that freely. Love and prayers for you and your family in this new year. xoxoxo
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Thank you, Faye! Thank you for becoming such an amazing person in my life. Thank you for making me think more deeply about my faith. Thank you for sending laughter all the way from Iowa to Texas. Just to consider that we can reach out and find people who share so many common life moments and so many common wonderments is almost beyond my grasp. God places us where we should be when we least expect it…if we pay attention! Blogging brought me back to the joy of writing. I had no idea that it would bring me the joy of new friendships! A blessing that just happened to come my way! Happy New Year to you and your family! And I hope you dance! And I will be dancing like not one person is watching…thank you for reminding me!!!
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I could say every one of those words back to you, Patricia! I have told my kids that if I get back to Dallas I am coming to visit :). They just laughed and said “you have never even met her.” and I told them I had met you through your words! I am so grateful!
I will be dancing right with you. may you and your family be blessed in the coming year.
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Thank you, Faye! Recently, I told our daughter that I really wished that her Dad and I could travel up to Iowa sometime! She said…”Oh, you should! You really want to visit the Decorah eagles!”… I quickly said…”Well, true. But, what I really want to do first is to go visit Faye!” Kathleen laughed and said that now she got it…that I wanted to visit the Chicken Grandma!!! She thinks that she knows you too! Have a fun New Year’s Eve…we usually just go to dinner or to a friend’s house or down to the farm. Right now…I am at Mike’s office while he “closes” out for the month. Accountant talk…I guess. While he is working, I am writing to you and thinking about writing a response to the daily prompt. However, there is chocolate cake in the break room! I saw it just about immediately!!!
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You just let me know when you are coming to Iowa!! Our oldest, Jared, thought it would be cool to visit blogging friends. He has made so many friends all over because he runs marathons. (not something I am taking up!)
Definitely dance your way over to that chocolate cake LOL!
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Such a Beautiful Post Faye! Happy New Years to you and your Family! Love it! 🙂
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Blessings in the New Year to you also Ruthie!
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Love you. Your words are spoken better than anything I could have said, but could have come from my heart too. These last few months have been really heart stopping ,to put it bluntly, but I know my God and Father is in charge. My prayer is for all of us to look to him in the coming year. It will be the only way to get through it. Put the girls to bed early tonight so the fireworks won’t keep them awake. LOL
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Life can be so hard. It is good to know that He is in charge. I would hate to think how bad it would be if I were in charge.
My prayers are with you Beverly as you walk the road laid out for you. You do not go alone. (Isaiah 43:2)
I will put the girls to bed early and give them a little extra end of the year treat. May you be blessed in the coming year. Love you too.
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Beautifully written. Such truth in your words combined with the perfect pinch of gratefulness and hope. The song I Hope You Dance has always been my song for my daughter. I am so glad you chose to share/blog. Happy New Year to you and yours. Kind Regards and warm hugs – K
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Thank you so much for your kind words. I always think of my three sons when I hear that song. It is my hope for them. May you be blessed in the coming year!
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Thank you Faye! This is beautifully written, I love the idea of the space between time and day. I really enjoy your blog and am looking forward to reading next years thoughts! Many blessings to all your family.
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Blessing to you in the next year! I have been really enjoying writing this blog. I should probably thank my kids…they are the ones who kept telling me I needed to and actually set it up.
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I am all the richer for having met you, Faye!! May the Lord of all new things bless you immeasurably this coming year. May He cover the past with grace as His mercy dawns new!!
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I feel the same about you! May your new year be full of blessings and joys.
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Thank you so kindly!! I’m expecting to see God move in a might mighty way this year. When my expectations are in heaven, not earth, I am never disappointed!
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You are so right on where to keep our expectations! Keeping our eyes open for His direction in this coming year.
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Amen!!
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Hi! Sorry I have missed a post or two but my gadgets and I were separated over Christmas and New Year! I got all goose-bumpy reading this. Beautiful writing from a beautiful person. Really. Personally I would like to thank whoever (I think you said before it was a daughter-in-law?) got you to start blogging. I hope you never stop. All the best to you and yours for a happy and healthy 2017 Xx
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It was my daughter-in-law, Becca, the web guru :). I still ask her questions when the blog runs amuck. If I don’t get an answer soon enough I start trying different buttons on the tool bar (always interesting!)
I am glad I started blogging also….that way I got to meet you and so many others. You are such a blessing!
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You too! Xx
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Started my year with your lovely post😙😘
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So glad you stopped by and enjoyed yourself!! I will have to come visiting your way.
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A beautiful read, filled with love straight from your heart. From the moment I began reading I felt myself sit on the doorstep, in the last moments of the sun and the few moments before the moon, and as I relaxed I felt my heart slow down and my mind become still.
Sitting with you is always such a joy to me because you talk from the heart, to the heart, and my heart hears you and smiles. YOU make my heart smile.
I’m so blessed to have ‘met’ you, and have you in my life.
Love you and sending you warm squidges ~ Cobs. x
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Thank you so much Cobs. I would love to sit on the doorstep with you. When I stand out there and just “be” it is like anything is possible.
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[nodding] Anything IS possible. But only if we begin.
😉
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Hi Faye, and Happy New Year. Glad we are blog “buddies” now and welcome to the blogosphere this past year. Sounds like you are enjoying it and making the most of it!
This was a very insightful and introspective post. The picture reflects the thoughts perfectly.
Just one question: How did you know that I had a new hairdo this year?
Your pal, Al
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LOL on the hairdo. I was going from my past experience! My husband always tells me not to complain about a hairdo gone bad….he wished he had more hair.
I am enjoying the blogging thing. So grateful my kids talked me into it.
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I’m sooooooo glad you started blogging! Yay to your kids for encouraging you to! I feel like I’ve known you all my life. 🌻
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I feel the same with you! Isn’t that just so cool?
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Yes ma’am. That man upstairs knows how to hook up kindred spirits!
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