It seems like a dizzying amount of things have happened, within the walls of our house and our personal lives here in Roscoe, and events in our community and the world.
I was mesmerized by Felix Baumgartner's jump from the stratosphere, and I almost missed it. (Thanks, social media!) I will also never forget watching South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius qualify for the olympic finals in the 400 meters. And I was happy, quite stunned frankly, to see Barack Obama elected to a second term in office.
For me personally, there weren't too many events bigger than the Twin Cities Marathon. It seemed like a logical next step after the Racine 70.3 last year, but it's funny that just a few years ago I wasn't sure that 26.2 miles was even something I wanted to do, let alone could do. But the training, camaraderie with new running friends and pushing my limit of how far I could go turned into another transformational experience for me. I will never forget some of those times alone on the bike path during those long runs, where I was just overwhelmed mentally and even ran faster during the last few miles when I should have been wiped out. Minneapolis/St. Paul turned out to be a great choice for my first marathon. The cities were gorgeous on a chilly fall day, the fans were everywhere, and my family was there to see it all go down. It was a fantastic experience.
And Ragnar? Crazy.
A bunch of new friends, a couple of vans, and nearly 200 miles to run between Madison and Chicago. Running down a pitch-dark bike trail in the middle of the night with just a headlamp and no other runners in sight? Not being able to walk comfortably the next morning but running another 5 miles anyway? I guess anything is possible.
And yes, we traveled our asses off.
Again.
•Skiing in Colorado, along with solo return trip with the Boulderites
•Door County (which always seems like vacation trips but are really visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house)
•Mexico with an expanded St. Louis contingent
•Canada with the entire Hankins family (fishing, drinking and bats, oh my!)
•Michigan for family visits in GR and a fantastic "Tour de Brew" along the 94 corridor
And it's been a year of growth in my spiritual life as I've become more involved at Heartland. The church has likely been the biggest blessing of all for me, not just in the past year. The friends we've made, walking a bit closer to Jesus, the joy we've been able to help spread - all just amazing. I'm anxious to see how our reborn men's group takes off this coming year.
However, as I sit here next to the fireplace, drinking coffee, the girls playing on iPods or coloring as we relax on New Year's Eve, I'm starting to realize that my vision an hour ago of writing an epic piece on what 2012 meant to me just isn't possible. I'm needed more for checking on the progress of winter coloring scenes, iPod apps to update, hash browns to cook and serve, etc.
I'm just feeling a bit nostalgic sitting here on 12/31/12, felt like I had to do some writing.
I think I was hoping for something more eloquently written which basically says this:
It's not always easy to be grateful for what you have been blessed with. It's very easy to look around and notice what you'd don't have, the work that needs to be done, the mistakes that you constantly make. But when I'm honest with myself, things couldn't be further from that.
The last few weeks of spending time with family have been a chance to focus on what we do have. I've built more fires in the fireplace, played more games with the girls, spent more time on their level. I've watched as we were all swallowed up by the "most wonderful time of the year", and the reason we celebrate in the first place.
Our wonderful (sometimes bat-shit crazy) families, our fantastic friends, and God who hands out grace by the truckload whether we deserve it or not.
I will be thinking of all of that today and tonight, as the clock winds down on 2012. In some way, you're all with me today. And to that, I raise a virtual glass of homemade IPA.
Cheers.
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