Happy New You!

In case anyone noticed: Sorry I haven't made any posts in the last several weeks. I'd like to say it's because I "have a life" but really I think I just haven't had anything to say. But I have been busy. I'm solo (I hate the word freelance!) for the first time in nearly ten years, and business has picked up over the past few weeks. So I have been busy.

I've always liked the month of January. Partly because my birthday is in early January and every year as long as I can remember my Mom has made me a peppermint birthday cake with crushed bits of candy canes sprinkled over the top. But mostly because January represents a fresh start, a new beginning.

Flipping around on television the other night, I was attracted by a movie on the Lifetime channel. I don't even know the name of it, but it starred that actor who played the crotchity old father with the duct-taped chair on "Fraser". I think what attracted me was that the people in this movie seemed so real, unlike most of the people in Lifetime movies (or any other made-for-TV movie for that matter). Fraser's dad was playing this philandering more-than-middle-age man who loved his wife but kept cheating on her. He was having a years-long affair with a woman who was apparently a friend of his wife's, and sleeping around with other women as well. Cheating on both of them it would seem.

In this one scene, while on a business trip he meets a young bartender who was young enough to be his daughter and they end up having sex in his hotel room. As they're getting dressed the girl's cell phone rings and she takes a call from her husband, tells him she's wrapping up at work and will be home soon, and asks how's the baby doing. She apparently is "happily" married and has a young child.

So Fraser's dad asks her, "Why do you do it?" Why have affairs with other men?

And she responds simply, "Because it makes me feel new."

Wow. I never thought about infidelity that way. Maybe because it's not my personal choice of vices. But I think I can relate to that idea nevertheless.

I buy stuff. I want the latest gadget. I drive a fairly new car. I like new clothes. I get trendy haircuts. And I buy (and download) LOTS of music. Constantly. And I suddenly realize it's because they make me feel new.

Discovering a cool band, like the Flaming Lips or Interpol, and listening to their music for the first time. Buying that shirt and sweater that make me think I look like that guy in the J. Crew catalog. I'm someone today that I wasn't yesterday. Who I was yesterday disappointed, screwed up, didn't live up to my expectations. Who I am today is different, better. Surely this will be the one.

Talk about "looking for love in all the wrong places"!

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in Him."

Here's to truly new beginnings. New mornings. New mercies. New years. New yous.