Boasting About Tomorrow.

Each year, to usher in the New Year, I make it a point to do something different from the year before, and something I have never done before. One year, it was Costa Rica. Another year, it was watchnight service at church. Then there was the year I just decided to walk three miles to a friend’s house for a New Year’s Day luncheon.

Last year, while still in Florida, I planned that I would spend New Year’s by myself with a bottle of champagne on Miami Beach watching the stars. I had it all planned out weeks before. I had the champagne in the fridge, the champagne glass at the ready, and the beach towel already in the car. I had told all my friends not to expect me at the typical New Year’s Eve club events because I HAD PLANS.

On December 30, I caught a flu the likes of which I had never experienced. On December 31, one of my managers insisted I leave work early because I sounded like Doc Holiday with my coughing and sneezing.

By the time I got home, after making a pitstop at the store for some medicine, I had a fever and was absolutely exhausted. I passed out in bed and remained there for hours.

My saving grace was that a friend of a friend who I had extended an invitation to stay for the holidays. She checked in on me and made sure I had something to eat. She also checked my mail and took calls. I was that incoherent.

As I lay in bed that night, I though of the humor of it all. I watched as the clock came, said “hi” to midnight, and kept going into 2005. The car stayed parked and the champagne stayed chilled in the fridge. I couldn’t have gotten out of my house under my own power if it had been burning. My fantasies of Miami Beach drinking Asti remained just that.

As I walked to work this morning, I thought what a tough year 2005 had been for me and just about everyone I know, and about 2006 and all it held in store. I remembered where I was almost a year ago, dreaming of South Beach. I have my plans and aspirations for 2006 to be sure, but I’ll check with God first.