This Was The Year

Today is the first day of September. My daughter is off for her first day of high school. Yesterday, she picked up her driver’s permit.

On Sunday, I begin a new series at the church called, “A Year of_______________.”

The start of a new year (whether academic or calendar) usually has us thinking about goals and changes we’d like to make.

Norwegian jazz artist Ine Hoem has a song about expectations for a new year… it’s called, “This Year.”

This was the year I would finish a book

I was going to live a Bohemian life in Berlin

And this was the year I was redecorating my kitchen, my bedroom, my bathroom and everything inside.

This was the year my life would change

and all of the chaos would fall in two days

This was the year I would start on a diet and be very healthy while reading the magazines thorough.

And this was the year I would write a whole book about life, how I see it and they would all think I was smart.

And this was the year I would play on tv I would talk to the host about life and the hard times last year.

And this was the year I would tour in the states I would live in New York buy new clothes and drink wine every day.

This was the year I would make it.

But this became the year… I was faking it

Everything stays the same.

I want to move to Paris and I want to be with my lover…

I want to tell him I love him I want to ride on a horse in the sunset with my beloved.

This was the year I would marry, have kids, buy a house with a garden

and this was the year I would cook everyday I would travel the world talk to strangers and friends.

be a lover, a wife, a mother, a friend.

And everything would turn out perfect in the end

in the end

in the end.

Oh I thought had changed,

but nothing has changed

everything stays the same

The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. —Lamentations 3.22-23