Welcome to the eve of a  brand new year. Here we are, December, 31 2009! This time tomorrow we will have 365 sparkling new days ahead of us to mark however we please.

Do you want to experience life differently than you ever have before?  You can. Start by spending the next twenty minutes reflecting on the experiences you do want to have. Write them down. Rip them out. Tape them to bathroom mirror. If your up to being pushed spiritually, read on…

Midnight Jan. 1, 2010: I love how refreshing, spacious, full of possibility and just plane “good”, that first  moment of a new year feels, don’t you?

A new year invites us to meet love, joy, beauty, strength, discipline, patience, compassion, charity, challenge and hope in new ways. I’ve been thinking about these opportunities and I hope you are too.

As a photographer, the new year invites me into thousands of new chances to capture moments and create exciting images. As a mom, wife, and woman, 2010 also invites me to reinvent the way I live my “everyday.” Who says each week has to be “same old, same old”? I’m entering this new year with a vow to live life with more creativity, romance and adventure and I can’t wait to see what is in store!

Have you noticed I haven’t said the word “resolution” yet? It’s actually on purpose, because this year I’m not making any; I’m doing something else instead. Resolutions sound good, but don’t often end good. They begin making you feel hopeFULL, but generally end making you feel hopeLESS.

From wikipedia, “A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day and remain until fulfilled or abandoned.

At the root of resolution making is a belief in new possibility. This is an awesome thing. Belief in new possibility is central to hope, dreams and positive change. I’m keeping a commitment to this belief, but the other half of resolution making- the demand to measure up, to performing without fault- I’m letting go. This year I’m not interested in basing my sense of self worth on any one accomplishment, instead I’m interested in growing deeper in my understanding of who I am.

More often our yearly resolutions are tied to our performance and not a lifelong commitment to growth. The thing is, a resolution feels great so long as we are performing great, but our resolution often turns on us the moment we drop the ball. All of us a sudden the thing that once offered hope and motivation, becomes the thing that marks us as a failure, and robs us of our confidence to experience real change. We throw in the towel, we give up, we abandon the sinking ship of habit reform.

Here is a radical new idea, albeit a tad bit evangelical: Instead of making resolutions this year, make a commitment to know who you are in God.

Did I just say that?  I feel myself dangerously out on a limb here….

I recommend this to you humbly, letting you know that it is something I am committing myself to, too. And, it is not something that comes easy to me.

So, here is the one thing I will be focusing on in 2010, in lieu of resolutions: I am loved by God. How deeply do I believe this?

The year ahead will be a beautiful one, but it will also be a year that I will inevitably loose my patience as a mom, get frustrated with my husband, feel like a failure professionally, wish I hadn’t eaten that or this, get horribly self-absorbed, miss opportunities to serve others, desperately want to stay under the covers for hours at a time, feel resentment over silly things, and all together doubt I am worthy of being loved or forgiven.  No resolution I can make can save me from these things, but by focusing efforts on spiritual matters, at least the experience of these things can be different.

Returning to the belief that I am loved by God (and choosing to believe it no matter what I am temporarily feeling), will be a challenging exercise in humility.   The New Year is hopeful and bright, and ups and down it will surely bring.  For all of us, I invite Grace and a daily remembrance of Love to see us through. Pick up your Bible’s and read Romans 15:13.