2008 = Change

I always felt that the one thing the differentiated me from the rest of the world was my optimism. The very simple fact that when everyone saw the clouds coming, the sky dampening and the thunder striking, I saw flowers blossoming and droughts ending. When life threw lemons, well you know the rest. But somehow, at some point it all just became rain.

I can't help fight this feeling that its going to be different this year. Something has to make way for new beginnings. Life has somehow become a fallen rut. The same day with a different suit, tainted by someone else's view of the world. The battles I once fought, now seem like a game of tag. The ones in front of me now, out of mine, our control. Unbalanced somehow. Unclear.

But it's time, this even, leap, election year; it's time to do it differently. To see things in a way that I have refused to see them. To forgive. To be patient. To trust again. Maybe, possibly, perhaps even to start hoping once more.

It's in the air, it's on the earth. Something is bound to happen. Something with wings so bright, a tail so long that all that came before it will somehow change, and dare I say, change for the better.

This is the year I'll embrace my age. I'll fall into my late twenties and bring with them the responsibility the age has. Maturity; to make tough decisions, fight the large fights, forgive the painstaken. Release the anger. Maybe even smile when it's inappropriate to.

I want to be an optimist a again. I want to believe this world will get better. That the bloodshed will stop. On my way back from Houston, in the airport we sat near two soldiers who were returning to their bases after the holidays. So young, probably in their late 'teens, early 20s, talking about their deployment. One of them with tears in his eyes spoke about dropping his daughter off to school and saying goodbye. Say goodbye, not for a short period of time, but for possibly ever. And then today I come across the final post of a solider, Andrew Olmsted, who died in Iraq and asked a fellow blogger to post his blog if and when he perished. Read it at http://andrewolmsted.com/.

It's just not fair. The war, the death, the helplessness. The corruption, the killing. It's time for a change. Anything, something. At some time, and so why not now. Why not here.

Why not today.