By Lucy Winn Fuller
Here we are at the start of yet another year. A year of births, deaths, memories, and lessons. We will take risks and stumble across possibilities that we intend on bringing to fruition. We will correct our mistakes from the previous year and create new problems to solve in this one. Last year, we batted our eyes, and our children grew another six inches and drifted further away into their own lives. We had to make difficult and very final decisions that we thought, or still might think, will be the death of us. We discovered life changing good news that we will remember always and hold near and dear to our hearts.
We wish our friends, family, and those we don’t even know a “Happy New Year” hoping that it really does go better than the last.
Football teams will win and lose. Politics and religion will fight their never ending battles across our country as they always do. We will bow our heads and pray harder for our leaders and our growing children in hopes that they take our dreams and make them their reality. We clench our jaws and grit our teeth at the ones who spew endless hatred and negativity into our seemingly happy world. We bite our tongues and say a prayer for those that will wrong us once again even though we know in the back of our mind it may happen again. We forgive, and we try to forget. We move on into another year.
Time marches on and doesn’t stop for anyone. It’s a harsh reality for some, but to me its proof that life goes on, and I am okay with that. 2018 had been a hard-earned year. My whole life has been made up of years better than the last, and I am determined to keep it that way. I always try to look at the positive in life no matter what hand I’ve been dealt. I must say that the cards were shuffled well, because last year took the cake on good years. We celebrated our own Abigail Jennings in her first year of life and, though it was not easy, we kept our heads above the water the entire time.
The first year of a baby’s life can be hard on parents. Sleep deprivation becomes the norm as we adjust to our little ones resting patterns and quirks. Sometimes she needs to nurse before she lays down, sometimes she wants daddy to rock her to sleep, sometimes she just doesn’t want to go to sleep at all, and we get stuck in an endless battle of “fighting” it. It makes me wonder, in a sense, aren’t we all constantly adjusting and learning the patterns and quirks of life?
A lot of the time it seems like this life has taken its toll on me. I feel like this is the year that life kicked me back into where I’m supposed to be. I am supposed to be right here sitting at my desk, in my pajamas, at 12 p.m. on a Saturday telling you about my journey. I have a smile on my face as I am typing this now: “This is exactly where I’m supposed to be.” Everything has happened in its own perfect timing for me to be right here right now.
I remember (roughly) 2 years ago seeing this house for the first time and falling in love with it. It was cold the day Jody brought me here. We explored the old abandoned Fuller family homeplace and dreamed up a million possibilities. We visited the windy banks of the Tallapoosa River. We even planned future kayaking excursions and camping trips. You see, for those of you who don’t know the history of Jody and me, we went our separate ways for a little while. When God has a plan for your life and you trust Him with it, He has a way of putting you exactly where He wants you. Most of the time you won’t even know that His plan is actually what you want or even need, but it is and it’s perfect. Although I may question Him more than I should, I trust Him. Well, God brought us back together and he brought us here to our home.
Our home may be small and need lots of work, but our hearts are big and our hands are ready for the work that needs to be done. We have both prepared our whole lives for this moment. We have both prepared our whole lives for this year. Each year is only a stepping stone in the creek of life and here we are at our very own creek. The sun is out today, for the first time in weeks, and we are about to get our feet wet in the creek that runs behind our home. As I turn my face to the warmth of the sun and dip my foot into the cold water I realize something. Out of all the heartbreak and disappointment in life you can always count on the one thing that truly matters most, and that is Love. I’ve got that times three.
Happy New Year.
Lucy Fuller is a lover of nature, animals, gardening, and old houses. She may be reached at fullalove2017@gmail.com