Wash away the sins of the world, grant us peace

Yes, I’m misquoting the Bible, so shoot me. Sin number one: I didn’t blog last week. That’s all I’m going to say on that subject. Although I forgot that I wrote something on the 17th instead of being the lazy bum that I love to be when I’m with my family.  That made coming on here into a beautiful “YAY I’m not always a useless slob” moment.

The misquoted Bible passage is one that I’ve heard a lot “Take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” Pretty sure it’s a Catholic thing, but I’ve always liked it and I very much enjoy the rhythm of saying stuff back to the Priest. Today, I decided to change the “take” to “wash” because it’s raining here in Germany for the new year, and I hear it rained in New Zealand, too.

Due to the fact that I’m not a tv channel with a top 20 list, I will restrain myself from the urge to recap THE ENTIRE YEAR, and look forward. We can wash away the crazy and start over. That’s why I love rain. It cleans the world, leaving a natural peace and beauty behind, just like it will on the fields where my aunt and I got soaked while dogwalking. Admittedly, both the peace and the beauty fade as the post-rain serenity is interrupted by all the crazy that existed shortly before it started pouring. Nothing’s perfect.

I love the rain because it’s inspiring, and I love inspiration because it turns the darkness of the world into something beautiful. Death can be inspiring, pain can be inspiring. A scene of war can make you incapable of containing the creative part of you that yearns to turn it into something good, something useful.

Well, today I will turn 2011 into something useful. I will turn it into 2012. “Julia,” you may say, “Julia, it’s going to be 2012, anyway!” To this I say, “Of course, but I will turn it into MY 2012.”

According to my mother–wise, wonderful woman that she is–every year is better than the last. I hereby don my rose-colored glasses once more to put on record that I fully agree. Every year IS better than the last. I loved living in New York, but I am also amazed by Spain. I don’t really even care that I’m “in Europe” right now. What matters is not that I am in midst of the strange and wonderful union that the rest of the world often romanticizes. I’m simply supersupersuper grateful that I can spend “Silvester” with my German family. People make a place what it is. This is home because of my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my cousins.. This is home because of extended family and family friends that still care about me after all these years.

I spent last night watching Beauty and the Beast with one of my old friends because she’d never seen this, my favorite of all Disney movies. Yes, Belle’s got a huge library and a story somewhat similar to mine (girl who got bored of the boonies and went somewhere where people understood her) but really she’s my favorite princess because she was the only one with brown hair and I found that completely fantastic when I was six.

My friends are keeping in contact on facebook, which makes me happy, and I called my mother last night. Yes, last year was epic, this year was incredibly amazing. However, I have to say that I believe with all my heart that 2012 will be even better. The end of the world stuff is a bunch of hooey anyway, because I have a lot of countries to visit before then. No time for Armageddon. Srsly. (yes, I hate myself for writing that, too 😉

My family has arrived. This party is gonna rock. Have a beautiful new year, everyone.

All the love that 2011 has left to offer,

Julia