It's New Year's Day and that means there's nothing to do today.

The streets are quiet.

The stores are closed.

The western world as we know it is taking a collective sigh today. Whether someone is nursing a hangover or simply reflecting on the hopes and dreams of 2008, one thing is certain, it's going to get better. People everywhere get excited about the idea of a new year. It's quite strange. There's really not a big difference between the 31st day of December and the 1st day of January. You know this, I know this, but for some reason we do this thing near the end of a year where we start to anticipate the "fresh start" of a new year.

The homeless and the marginalized get excited for a new year.

The prominent and the successful get excited for a new year.

I long for that moment to stay with us. That little flicker of hope we have inside that says this year is going to be better. 2007 was a great year for me and my family. We loved people and were loved by people. What more can you ask for? ----->More Love.

We had a party last night with about 50 people over. These are people that I love and I suspect some of them like me too. It's a wonderful feeling and yet it always makes me feel burdened for those people who aren't experiencing that love. My personal goal this year is to break through my skeptical/cynical nature and love people like I've never loved people before. It's hard, but every time I do it a little piece of something missing is restored. Every small thing we do has a ripple effect to it and it grows and it spreads. That is reverb. That's what the Kingdom of God is all about...reckless, relentless love.

*Sappiness Over*

I'm an idiot story #247 - I was making fun of Ryan's boots at about 2 am with a dozen or so people around and I tried to take them off of his feet to try them on. I pulled hard on the first boot and when it came off it smashed me in the face.

Lesson learned: There's no possible way to look cool when you hit yourself in the face with someone else's boot. I tried...I failed.