My resolution.

This year, I dare to live a life of extravagant happiness.
I will live.
I will give 101%.
I will strive to understand before I am understood.
I will live fully, laugh often, and love always.
I will love my life and the people in it, because that's exactly where God wants me.

I don't think it's possible to live with no regrets. I think there will always be things I regret. I think I will always get to the end of a year and look back and wish I could have done a few things differently. I'm not always going to be fully satisfied with my own attempts at perfection, but that's because I'm not perfect.

To put it the way Jon Acuff does -- "I don't want the best of what [Hannah Dokupil] is capable. That’s small and tiny and insignificant. I want to experience the best of what God is capable. A supernatural God who breathed life into me and set the stars in place and moves with as much mystery and creativity as he did when he wrote a message on the wall for a king or burned a talking bush for a prophet."

I don't want to be satisfied by my own efforts. I want to be satisfied by a God who is greater than I am.

I'm not making new years resolutions this year, because I always fail them. I'm not going to resolve to be anything that I'm not. I'm not going to raise my own expectations so high I can't reach them. I simply am going to be. I'm going to live, and I'm going to learn. When I get to the end of 2012, I'm going to say that this year, I grew.

I love...

practicing guitar till my fingers turn a blueish purple.

organic marshmallows.

jamming to worship songs in my bedroom.

laughing with my bible quiz team till our sides hurt.

reading good books till 1am.

eating blueberries.

having a 6-hour laptop battery life instead of a 2-hour battery life.

singing veggie tales songs off key.

running in the wind.

feeling classy sitting with my laptop while eating porridge, drinking coffee, and studying for quiz.

cinnamon chip bread.

black, pilot brand gel-ink pens.

watching shirley temple.

conversations about God.

long hugs with best friends.

a brand new year.

This new year, tell me,

What is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

(the summer day / Mary Oliver)

"I do dare to live a life of extravagant happiness. I will love so fiercely, live so much gladness, that everyone will think that it isn’t fair.
But I will cherish this happiness, and not guilt myself into giving it up because other people don’t have it. No, instead I will find ways to make that happiness for other people, pouring it into every corner that I visit, fearlessly showing my loved ones that I care, allowing my sympathies to be stricken into helping my fellow men with everything inside of me.
But I will not give up my high ground, and sink into despondency. The world needs a higher ratio of happiness to depression, and I will be among the happy. Just my very joyful presence will lighten the load of the overburdened, terrible, broken world.
I do dare to live a life of extravagant happiness."

--Gray

My favorite part of Christmas.

Is still coming to the front of the balcony during Christmas Eve service and watching the flickering candlelight slowly fill the room.

In the past, I've always mourned the un-importance of my single candle flame. I'm just one light in a room full of thousands of lights, how could I possibly be important? I'm just one person in a world with billions of people, how could I ever be significant? Nobody would know if my flame just ceased to exist.

But today as I knelt there at the edge of the balcony, holding my single candle flame, I realized how beautiful it is that I am part of this world, and how precious my one life is.

I may be one single light, but that light is precious. Today I realized that who I am doesn't have to be someone who's wildly unique, original, decisive, and sure. I don't have to spend all my effort trying to make myself -- or even discover myself -- into someone who's "unique" or "set apart."

I am a part of this world. I am one light in a sea of little lights, and it's okay.

A lot of my Christian upbringing has included a large dose of the "you are unique and special" message. And while I don't deny that, I think it has a tendency to make us (or at least me) feel as if I must be better and more special than everyone else in the world.

But -- and I'm going to link you up to this post again because that's how good it is --

There is power in being common.

"If I am...a wise person-- I will seek to understand the things that all men share inside of themselves, instead of the things that set them apart from each other. Why was my self-value wrapped up in the ways that I perceive myself differing from other men?" (Gray)

This little light of mine is wild and precious. It can start fires. It's just the same as everyone else's -- but it's mine. It was lit by my Creator. And I'm going to live it, love it, and let it shine.

Tonight the wall is coming down.

Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.

— Norton Juster

Alright, here's another song from Taylor Swift. Again. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I really couldn't. It's just too cute.

Best of all, it's unique, and original. There's no break in the story for singing, or any face-melting-stage-dancing or anything like that. It's like she's human, for once.



ALSO THERE IS AN ASIAN MAN WITH A BANANA.