2010 I welcome with wide open arms!
I have very strange reaction to the New Year. It's change. And I really don't like change, of any sort. I get used to my rut and like to stay comfortable, wallowing in it's sameness. I cried every time a new term started in college (that's a lot of crying! Undergraduate and graduate years - the tears just flowed)
Why? Well, I'd get used to the schedule. I learned to like the new schedule - liked when I could squeeze my runs in, study, see friends, go hiking, have an easier day and then boom, right when I absolutely fell in love with the new routine, it was done...and the next one was upon me and darn it, it was different.
So, I usually find that Jan 1st is my least favorite day of the year. I am sad that the year I have worn like a comfortable blanket is now done. I worked so hard to do all the details of the year - b-days, holidays, vacations, - ahh the glory of a well-oiled, smoothly flowing, familiar system - and now, it's all done and I Start over????
But, this year I am actually finding I am noticing amidst my typical melancholy woes of a new year that I am excited. 2009 was so full of conversations with hurting people - economically, spiritually, emotionally, and bodily health - and what became familiar in 2009 was comments about the sad state of affairs with the economy, the housing market, the health of our nation, our government, the bleak future....
And well into the year, I did get tired of it because I like to smile more then these conversations ever allowed me to do, but unfortunately, I more often then I care to admit, fell into the negativity myself. It became the 2009 thing to do.
This year, 2010, despite the fact that probably none of these bleak conversations have been concluded in anyway, I plan to try to turn the tide, one conversation at a time. I hope to talk more about the beauty of humanity, God's creation (www.coryjoneillphotography.com), and the good to behold in each and every day.
Yes - this year I resolve to focus on How Great He Is.
How Great Thou Art (as performed by my brother David Klinkenberg and I in Molina, IL for a radio station listener appreciation concert we put on for their community):
As I listened to the stories of this family that has lived on this exact piece of property since the mid 1800s and slowly took time to study the pictures hanging on their walls of weatheredf aces that only begets wisdom, I longed to have time to talk with each of the men who have left a legacy of American work ethic, family values, and commitment that seems to be slowly fading in the American culture. Pictured here - Granddad Barrow. He was born in the current office of the house we stayed at and died, at age 97, 2 doors down the hallway from where he was born. Now that's what I call sinking your roots deep. He spent his years ranching, raising his family, supporting community, and volunteering in his Baptist church. He was a man of fun stories, lots of spunk using his hats 'till they about fell apart to the chagrin of his wife Thelma 'cause he "hadn't gotten all the use out of it yet!" and sunup to sundown work. At 95, he was still out riding, side by side with his sons and grandsons on his horse. Barn dances were made festive by his fiddle-playing and stories of the day. This man of hearty laughs, stories of the land, and a spirit that had him riding side by side with his living legacies almost 'till the day he died was only doing what his own daddy taught him on that same land. Henry Barrow, settled that land living out of his covered wagon, a tent, and a dugout until they built a house out of adobe bricks. In 1906, they traded that little ranch for the present day ranch in Ector County. As part of the trade, they acquired 222 head of cattle. Henry Barrow and his wife raised their 4 children - including Hence Barrow, pictured below, all the while keeping their Eyes fixed on His Maker. 
