2011 - The Year We Were Pooped On

If you know me, you know that seagulls and I have a love-hate relationship. I have been pooped on more times than I can remember. I always figured “they must love me” since they choose me as their target. However, I have recently learned that birds often perform this ‘act of love’ to make themselves lighter as they flee from danger. So really, all of this time, they were scared of me.

On my way home from work I drive through an exchange of expressway that is home to hundred’s of birds. As you may have guessed I get pooped on almost every time. It is at this point that I am thankful for the vehicle I’m in, and that the window is taking the brunt force of the poop not me.

One day after driving through this treacherous area I got to thinking about how this year relates so much to those birds and what they so often do to me. At the end of January we laughed as we said, “2011 is NOT our year” thinking that it had to get better - we were only through the first month.

But then the year continued, as did the poop.

Our vehicles stopped working, our cupboards leaked, relationships changed, solid plans diminished, good-byes were said and tears were shed.

There is so much more that I can’t remember, or maybe just do not really want to.

When you are in the midst of it, you don’t see the bright side. It all seems like poop. But, almost everyday my van gets pooped on and there are days that I never notice.

There are been the down-lows this year, but we are thankful for the ones we don’t remember or that turned out to be not as bad as we thought. Our vehicles are still running, and we have a live in mechanic for when they don’t. We still have a roof, even if it leaks in large snow storms. Although we have said so long to some relationships, new ones have formed in their places. And even though there are some changes in our lives that we have yet to figure out, we know that they are all part of the plan for our family.

Then there was the day that I got pooped on in rainbow fashion. I don’t know what the birds were eating that day, but the kids and I laughed the whole way home at the sheer variety of color. Those are the times that I’m most thankful for this year, the ones that we could laugh through.
Like the time we ran out of toilet paper. One bathroom house, totally out of toilet paper.

And then there is the day that God decided to prove to us that His plan is better than ours. The day we found out about baby number three.

As the year started wrapping up and coming to a close we looked with anticipation to a new start. But as we needed to say good-bye to this year, we also had to say good-bye to beloved members of our family. We know that their new beginning is greater than any we will know, but it doesn’t change the loss that we feel without them.

Finally, I woke up this morning without a voice. I thought being sick through the holidays was enough, but I was hit once again.

Throughout today I have been thinking about this post, this year, and my lack of words.

It’s fitting. There isn’t anything to say that will change this past year. It is not my words that will write the next one. We have learned through it all that God has something to say to us, through the good and the bad. We need to listen.

It’s time to wash off the poop. More may come, but it too will be washed eventually. So, I silently say good-bye to 2011, and welcome 2012.

Bring it on birds, I’m ready!