Reclaimed New Year

It's a new beautiful year everyone! With that new year comes a whole slew of beautiful things. These things are not new, though. No, nothing is ever entirely "new." A "new" experience, a "new" idea, a "new" emotion, it all stems from someplace that may not be so much as new as it is dusty or reclaimed.

Yesterday, something blew the dust off of an emotion I haven't felt in quite a while. It happened like this:
I did the Insanity workout video with one of the long-term units at work. I had seen them doing it in the gym after school one afternoon, and I couldn't help but make fun of them in class the next day (they looked so jazzercise-ish). Somehow, that turned into the boys and the female staff convincing me to do it with them. So, pulling the other English teacher into the mix, we laced up our shoes, wore our baggy workout clothes, and joined the boys and female staff in turning bright red from the "Insane" exertion. I now feel like my calves have been trampled on...but that's beside the point. Afterwards, I walked down the sidewalk to the other long-term unit. The air felt unusually warm, and the breeze was welcome. I took notice of the unique scene as I got closer and closer to the far end of the razor-wire-enclosed yard and the hospital green clearance door. I've been here many many times, but without explanation, I felt completely, overwhelmingly content, and I had not been there in too long. I instantly smiled to myself and thanked Heavenly Father for the new emotion. I was wrong, however; the emotion was not new, only forgotten, like so many other things in life. Our new years resolutions, the sound of that childhood song (Simple Kind of Life-No Doubt), that annoying alarm clock every morning, a fleeting writing idea, your age. I'm happy to have it back.

It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday. The things we see in our common routine and our surge of expected emotions, they can almost feel like, "Well, this is it." That is, until a wind picks up and scatters the routine, the smog, and the air is new. It feels new, and we remember there is more. You may say, "Now, what about when I go to Italy for the first time? I literally have never been there before and that's new." True; however, you have been to new places before and that's half the journey. Nothing seems to be entirely new.

We can work this to our advantage. If we have experienced it before, we can experience it again. This new years, let's blow the dust off of everything we've forgotten but loved. The joy from giving, the worthwhile burn from a grueling workout, the pride from creating, the sweet indulgence from baking, the confidence from looking back, the thrill from adventure, the hope from setting goals, the _______ from ________. You fill it in.

I'm about to reclaim what's "new" and party like it's 1987-2011....that rhymes.

Let us love (like we were children)
Make us feel (like we're still living)
It is time (to beat the system)
Live this life (like we can't miss it)
-Needtobreathe