The Living Lady

Nancy White Kelly

Christmas, 2011, check. New Year’s Eve, 2011, check. New Year, 2012, in progress.

Buddy and I know we are getting old by the way we welcome each new year. When we first married and were very much younger, New Year’s Eve was a time to count the hours down. Most times we did it in church by eating and fellowshipping until near mid-night and then moved to the auditorium to pray in the next year. We don’t do that anymore and miss it. That might be the only event that would draw us from our comfortable beds. I know the often expressed reasons from our generation. “We don’t drive at night. “or “Too many drunks on the road.” For sure, we don’t have to be in church to pray, but it was nice to be together with friends of one accord.

I keep reading and hearing that 2012 is to be a cataclysmic year. With the 2012 phenomenon spreading across the globe, each day brings a steady stream of emails, postings, books and movies, all containing at least an hint of negativity.

I am not a pessimist. Maybe the world will end as we know it. If so, there is another world and, if prepared, a much better one. That’s not a terrible scenario. If I am hinting at religious faith, I don’t mean too. Let me shout it. There is life after death. All that is within me clings to that belief.

Beetles fans will remember that George Harrison sung a song from his album, ‘All things Must Pass” entitled “What is Life?” As a single, it hit the top 10 immediately. The back side of that record was, “My Sweet Lord.” Surprised?

What will 2012 bring? Life? Yes, at least for us. Buddy and I are expecting our next grandchild in late spring. Death? Maybe. We have many friends and relatives who are aged or seriously ill.

No doubt there will be happenings this new year that are awe-inspiring, miraculous, tragic and sublime. Humans through-out history have lived and died through similar highs and lows. The year 2012 could be no less or no more than other year. When 2013 arrives, we will have travelled a road that was the start or dead-end for many.

James 4:14 asks and then answers, "For what is your life? It is even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away"

So how do we manage today? Live in the moment, grateful for any opportunity to do good before our “poof.”

nancyk@windstream.net