I am one who does not make New Year resolutions, yet this year I prepared for the New Year with thoughts of consciously celebrating everything about my life and life in general. Celebrate?  How can I think of celebrating when there are those among us, our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, our “hayrenagitz”, our fellow citizens who at this moment cannot celebrate and do not feel celebratory due to tragic circumstances in their lives. With all that’s going on in the world, I should be thinking that that’s the last thing to do especially now when many have heavy hearts.

Prayer is the first thought that comes to mind. I know about God, the Lord, my refuge and my strength. He is called Lord, Jehovah, Holy Spirit, Yahweh, Allah, Our Father, Hallowed be Thy Name. He could be God on a throne in a cloud or God in a burning bush. We sneeze, He blesses.  He is called Shepherd and sometimes he is a Lamb. He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He lives in Heaven but He is also here on Earth with us. He is spirit. He is One and He is also three in One. He is Love. He lives in us and around us. He spoke to Moses. He also spoke to Abraham and Noah. He designed the Ark. He appears through angels.  Sometimes He is that small voice that talks from within and sometimes it seems He never speaks.  But I’ve noticed that when fear and despair inch their way into the very folds of my thought process, I start to pray.  It isn’t a thing I plan. It just happens and the words come out…and I stand brave. But when somebody hurts, especially children wounded or lost; and others who haunt the headlines with bereavement and suffering eyes, I feel an anger I cannot explain.  Yet, more than anger, it is a compassion wrenched with sorrow dug too deep for me to understand…and that’s when I think this must be God. And then there are moments when I see the beauty of pelicans in flight, or even just sunlight streaming through the clouds, and I think I’m on my own and no-one is there for me to share it with, I feel a tingle, an enormous joy, an elation beyond comprehension …and that’s when I think this must be God…in the here and now.

God, I’m glad you’re here, with me, with us, in the here and now, as You were in the beginning, so shall You be in the end.

So this year, I am starting 2013 with a resolution to celebrate life. Life is made up of succeeding good things that simply offset the bad. If I can celebrate each day with gratitude and rejoice in the presence and accomplishment of others, what better way to eliminate fear and allow faith to step in?!  I look at the calendar and start to mark all the dates that call for a celebration. I start with Soorp Dznoont the Epiphany, through lent and Easter and Theophany to come. Then I move on to birthdays of family and include friends I remember including  the different Saints’ days and people I know who bear the names starting with Sarkis in January, Vartan in February,  …and finally Hagop and Peter and Paul in December. Next, I recall anniversaries. A little while later I start to add meetings and major dates of events planned. Pretty soon the year is filling up with celebration days. But what of the days that have nothing marked on them? I am on a roll; I cannot let my celebrations end there. I look for every reason imaginable to celebrate: The first day of spring, the last day of autumn, the shortest day, the longest day, my grandson’s first day of school… the list is endless. I attach a footnote six months down the road to check with a friend for her second “six month” follow up with doctors at the City of Hope. Regardless of the outcome I will celebrate with her, her presence in my life, I promise myself. I’ll celebrate the past, the present and the future. And for those days I have not marked a specific cause, I highlight. Those will be even more special as I will have to create as I wake up to the day. So I challenge any of my readers to ask me on any given day of the year 2013 what I’m celebrating and I will answer without hesitation. Who knows, it could be you I’m celebrating.

Happy New Year to all and May your days be a succession of celebrations.