How will you spend the last day of 2004? Finishing up old business, making a list of resolutions for the New Year or taking the day off so you can meet with friends and family to celebrate tonight? For me it is a day to re-think the past year and use it to guide me to a better year coming up.

The days of last year lay behind as islands in a sea of memory. The New Year lies ahead as an open book with blank pages. They are like buoys observed from a ship’s rail. A marker of distance. Wise ships see them and adjust their course as wise men observe calendars and adjust their time. I have used up 72-calendars and am nearing the return cycle to begin the next. I am a ship leaving port and steering across watery highways to distant shores. There are destinations and schedules - all is planned and made ready. Whether the winds be favorable or foul I do not know. I sail the same for I have no choice. The shadowy days ahead on my calendar are voids of space and future - waiting as distant port calls. Beacons of light and buoys guide me across the days. As a single journey is begun in trust, not knowing if we shall reach our destination safely, so is each day lived. Take hold of trust and welcome each new day.

I am rebuilding structures started long ago. Nothing kills like old dreams unrealized, new dreams not hoped for. I am re-charging my “dream machine.”

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther