As the year 2019 comes to a close, a moment to remember all that has been could be beneficial. For many, it was a tough year with struggles and worries that threatened to be all consuming. Take a moment to look back. If you can see growth, understanding, a better sense of self, or a life changed or touched by your simple yet complex existence, hold fast to that vision. Imagine yourself as a character in a movie, allow those visions to flash through your mind until they become an invisible essence that, in the next brief moment, forms the expression on your face. What would that expression be? Would your face show contentment, anguish, frustration, or joy? For the character in the movie, that is never the ending. It is usually the beginning of something new, a new determination, a time of celebration, or a new understanding of what was, what is and what could be. And then the movie continues as the rest of the story unfolds.

 “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?

Isaiah 43:18-20