Happy Ides of January!

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Okay, so maybe that was an odd salutation; I'll grant you that. I'm greeting you in that fashion because I never got around to wishing y'all a Happy New Year. I'll get to that next week. On Monday, to be precise. Because here in the realm known as The Beehive, of which I'm sure I needn't remind you I am The Queen, 2009 officially starts this coming Sunday at midnight, straight up.

That thing that happened two weeks ago was just a dress rehearsal sort of thing, see. Those of you who fell for it as bona fide may continue in your delusion if you wish. Or, like us, you can have a nice dinner and a feisty, festive family bash on Sunday evening and strike a fresh match on your dwindling new year's bonfire. Up to you. But I know what I'd do if I were you.

Yes, I know, you're polishing your Valentine cookie cutters already and thinking the whole New Years deal is so last week. Or so week before that. Whatever. But I am an absorbent experientialist, see, which is an impressive way of saying I'm a tad slow on the uptake. Here on my planet, seeing as how it's not February yet, New Year's salutations are still timely and relevant, and not a tad passe'. Why not join me here on my planet? We could flambe the plum pudding leftovers and maybe finish up our advent readings.

You can carpe any diem you like if you live in a time warp. If it's December 31st you're after, so what if it's January 15th?

Seriously, now. The truth is that we had to put the proper arrival of 2009 on delay here in the Beehive. Our usual focus on wrapping up the old year and getting all zinged up for the new was put on hold by Gigi Louise's passing. We travelled to Memphis for eight days to celebrate her life and to spend some rare, suspended time enjoying the comfort of family and friends who also loved her and revered her remarkable life -- it was lovely. How God stirs joy into our sorrows.

And then we returned home to find ourselves woefully Behind Schedule. The sort of Behind Schedule that threatens to derail the old family choo-choo till June. Oh, well. We're not exactly calloused to that, but we are veterans.

Besides those detainments, we've simply felt quieted by her passing. It well deserves a pause. Her death, or perhaps it was her life -- yes, that -- has left us all in a whirlwind of reflection. There's so much to ponder from such a life, and I feel a little desperate to glean all the wisdom the moment offers before it fades, as moments always do. It's a paradox that fully facing death compels us to look hard in the face of life, and to consider anew how it should be lived. I'm certain the coming weeks will find me writing my way through that whirlwind.

But now it's mid-January, the Ides of January if you will, and we begin to feel we missed something elemental and essential to the ordained rhythm of time. Just a nagging feeling that this 2009 thing is not in full play because we never had the kick-off.

All of that brings us to this. Sunday has been proclaimed New Year's Eve here at the Beehive. We're having ourselves a party. Writing resolutions. Raising our Ebenezer* for 2008. Because it's important -- and entirely scriptural -- to reflect, to remember, examine, to have a fresh starting point for living the best life you can, to have hope. You shouldn't miss that. It's good stuff. And besides, it's a great excuse for chocolate mousse cake with raspberries and cream good family bonding time.

Carpe diem, my friends! Even if you have to carpe yourself some two week old diem, carpe diem anyway!

[And if you think you could also use another whack at New Year's Eve, well, so much the merrier. Better squeeze the zingy juice out of the January lemon before it dries up. Jump on in here and let us know and we'll lift a virtual glass of bubbly to you!]


*In 1 Samuel 7:12, Samuel raised a memorial stone which he named Ebenezer, meaning "stone of help," to mark a remembrance of a time and place in which the Lord had preserved and upheld His children by His own mighty hand. "Then Samuel took a stone, and set [it] between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us."
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