Hopes for the Year Ahead

At the end of this week, I head back for my second year at university. I threw the following list together partly for my own good – it’s as much a list of hopes as it is a list of reminders of what is important.

I hope to…

…get closer to having laughter lines. From laughing over evening meals eaten on the floor with friends, from watching YouTube videos with Lucy (dogofwisdom and stunned like vegetable being prime candidates), and from enjoying all the other blessings of life.

…walk more miles in more places. With other people and by myself. In Cambridge and elsewhere. With sunglasses on in the middle of winter. At hours I shouldn’t be awake to see. Crunching fiery-coloured leaves underfoot, or splashing in puddles, or walking with arms outstretched in the sunshine.

…get to the end of the year and have new stories. Funny ones, embarrassing ones, stories of all lengths and about all manner of things, tales of time well spent and time a little less well spent, tales that show and tell of God’s grace.

…do some things that scare me. Things that help me to learn more about myself. Spontaneous things that don’t fall victim to what I’m going to call ‘paralysis by analysis’ haha. Things that I’ll look back on with fondness in years to come.

…learn more. Preferably at least some philosophy. But also the random (theNowIKnow email subscription is a good ‘un for this), the challenging (the Rohingya Report won this category for the last year, please read), the useful, the heartbreaking, the interesting and the beautiful.

…become wiser. Talk less about myself. Say ‘I love you’ more often and to more people. Have more compassion and less pride. Share in the lives of others, delight in the fun and mess of life. Discover things I’m wrong about and subsequently change my mind. Rejoice in the everyday. Remember to be gentle with myself if things get hard. Be more alert to the beauty around me. Never lose sight of the hope that I have.

…get to the end of the year and look back with surprise at all the things that happened, with a deeper love for God and with a gratitude for where the year has taken me.