Hail the New Year!

The older I get,
the faster they go,
The years, that is, it seems

I mean, honestly,
how is it possible that another year has arrived already?
I feel like it’s still only 1993, or so,
but much has come and gone since then
I surely know

A marriage, for example,
My marriage, gone
Fifteen years of sharing a home and life
now no more
A mere blip on the screen of the impregnable past.

It’s been four years now,
But life has continued to move forward,
and we, the children and I (thank God for children!)
are living, loving, learning and yearning
like all humans do
be they from homes intact, or otherwise.

I never really bought into the idea of Tabula Rasa,
that children enter the world as blank slates

Only God began without a past
And we humans carry history within our souls

Nevertheless, Hail the New Year!
Not because it is empty,
for as soon as we enter it,
we bring to it our overburdened,
ever-changing selves,

Hail forward movement,
for lives unafraid of the future,
despite the past

Hail what’s next,
for He who promised is faithful
and He will do it.

Mercies new every morning,
past, present and future.


Kelli Kennedy is a Southern California girl living in the Las Vegas desert, but anticipating a(nother) move in the near future. She spends her days thankful for two beautiful teenagers, and teaching English to people from other countries. She loves babies, talking, singing, the body of Christ and the Pacific Ocean. Someday she will paint.