I was at a New Year’s party, and a friend asked me “what’s new about your new year? Any new year’s resolutions?”  I thought to myself, came up with nothing, and just spontaneously uttered, “I’m turning over a new leaf.”  My wife, charmingly confrontational, chimed, “exactly what leaf would it be you’re turning over?”

That took me by surprise.  “Turning over a new leaf.”  Hmmm.  I pondered.  Feeling at a complete loss for words, and wondering if there were actually ANY new leafs that I wanted to turn over, I spit out, “the leaf of the calendar!” That was so lame, it felt ridiculous.  May it was due to the glass of tasty red wine.  Perhaps far deeper, though, I think it may be because I’ve not really kept any New Year’s resolutions in the past, that I’m just not making any this new year.  I’m going to just be my best, natural self.  I do this all day, every day, new year or not.  I pray to God and rely on Him 100% to show me the way and to give me the power to be my best.

All of us are turning over new leaves.  It’s impossible not to, if it’s change you’re leafing through.  To wake up anew each morning means a whole new set of possibilities.  Just to be alive means to face newness.  Continuing our existence means we must adapt to an ever-changing environment.  If we remain our old selves, we get stuck.  Resisting change means decay, disease, and static.

Whether we choose to “turn over new leafs,”  embrace and embody change, become anew, be the whole person we’re made by God to be – or not – is up to us.  Given the potential to make this choice, we also have the power to try to stay the way we were.  However, making that choice – to remain attached to the old, has some less-than-desirable consequences.  I’m not going to ruin your new year by listing any, but I’d bet you know about the pain and suffering of remaining stuck and unchanging.  Truth is, God is always giving us new possibilities and realities.  We live in a world (and universe) of never-ending change.

So I’m turning over a new leaf this new year’s day, because the tree of life is alive and ever-changing.  Choosing to be my best, and fully live the God-given wondrous life I have been blessed with, I ask God to show me the seasons of me.  My new spring leaves of last year, so fallen in autumn, are now in the cradle of endless potential in the dormant cold winter of the new year.  I look to spring to sprout new leaves, so that I may be turned over and over.

I wish you a very wonderful year of new leaves to turn over.

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