HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! Now, now, stop frowning at your screen, side eyeing me and squinting like Bartimeus the Blindie #NoChill. I know I’m days late and dollars short, I know 2015’s new resolutions have already been postponed to 2016, holiday bulges are yet to be flattened, wrists hurt from correcting 4 to 5 while dating notes…and if you’re Christian AND Nigerian, you’re probably looking at your watch not your screen right now. No, it is still not 6pm and yes, the fast has NOT broken. Nigerians almost always start the year with a 21/ 40/ 70/ 100 day fast. Random aside, 100 days though?! Rough play! That thing might bring you closer to the King than you’d like! 100 days of hunger and you just might be seated RIGHT on His lap in the Throne room. Just saying.

I kid I kid, God knows I’m teasing Him. A fast is a wonderful way to begin the year because if nothing else, it evinces a decision to rededicate yourself to God through sacrifice. Sure not all of us complete the stipulated days, but Christianity is a second-per-second religion; even that singular attempt to walk steadfastly is important.

For the world, the year has begun in a rather difficult way, shootings in Europe, falling oil prices in America, 2000 dead thanks to Boko Haram in Africa…the news is not positive y’all. Then again, the news channels are never positive; people are comforted by bad news that doesn’t involve them and suspicious of good news that doesn’t involve them. So, there! On this same green earth the puzzle-pieces are completing the jigsaw for some, new babies are being born from wombs labelled barren, globe-moulding ideas are being wrought, businesses are flourishing, lives are blooming. In. This. Same. World.

So case closed we ignore the news, compris? We work hard. We stay focused. We cut out excesses and grow fundamentals. We look inward and try (yet again, lol) to walk closer to God. My mentor at work told me something at the end of last year that really made me think. She said, “I was used to God. I knew what He sounded like because we discussed almost everything before I did anything.” You cannot pick and choose with God, “Take my work but stay out of my relationship choices…ok, ok you can help me with my relationship with my parents, but only that!” He is the all or nothing type. So here’s what I decided this year, I’m going to actually try and submit ALL of myself, withholding nothing; not my dreams, not my hopes, not my Real Life Plan (A and B), not my worries, everything to God’s direction and then I trust that He will bring me to the best possible end. Not my decided end, just the end that He wants. Lemme tell you chile, it is a TERRIFYING decision to make. But I’m committed…so help me God. To do this though, you do have to know God a little more so that when you hear His replies to your questions, you know it’s His voice…not the voice of the little people in your head playing Scrabble with your grey matter.

So that’s me for 2015, what’s your 2015 plan?

BUT that’s not what today’s about! It’s this baby’s birthday…Suits, Scandal and the Goodwife aka Oh Wendelyn! Ze blog turns TWO today and I’ve traditionally (well all two years) brought in the new year on the blog on this day. Happy Birthday SSatGW!!!!!!!!! Very proud of this little baby/dream/project and as this year is a BIG writing year for me in terms of projects lined up, I’m thankful for this little space on these mean internet streets I’ve managed to carve out. Thank you for being a witness to my life.

So here’s to better writing, to deeper and lasting connections, to real-life- I-can’t-believe-it-happened-to-me-miracle stories, to sticking to scripts we lovingly wrote each letter to and to being a vessel for God’s message, cheers to 2015!