Thinking of the New Year

A confession as the old year goes out:

I've often allowed fear to dictate my actions.

A hope for the new year:

I want to choose excitement over fear when new possibilities present themselves. (This is possible because nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.)

A relevant conversation from Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring:

"I have never been out of my own land before," [said Merry]. "And if I had known what the world outside was like, I don't think I should have had the heart to leave it."

"Not even to see fair Lothlorian?" said Haldir. "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."