I’m not one for making a string of New Year’s resolutions. In fact, I usually reserve that kind of reflection for the fall, after a busy summer and a return to a more workaday routine. But I will share a few of my thoughts that have arisen recently about living life in general.

This past year I’ve watched loved ones struggle with aspects of life I take for granted. Most of us don’t think twice about drawing a deep breath, but watching my dad struggle with emphysema in his last days drove home for me how fortunate I am to be able to accomplish that most basic and essential act. In turn, it’s led me to focus on the blessings of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Each of us use those senses uncountable times a day without thought, but how monumentally our lives would change if just one were taken away.

My younger daughter is recuperating from foot surgery in our home. I see how little I consider being able to get a drink of water, take a shower, drive a car, walk to the mailbox whenever I want. Would I be able to submit as gracefully as Jenny does to relying on others and their timetables to meet my needs? Double the gift of mobility if you don’t suffer from chronic pain, so that you don’t have to measure the worth of every movement against the cost of the pain it might bring.

Lastly, as I review the past year and its highlights, I realize once again that so many of my treasured memories consist of a quiet moment considering a sunset, a newly unfurled sprout or blossom, a loved one’s smile, laughter with friends. It is too easy to get caught up in plans for the future or a possible cloud on the horizon and miss the simple delights right before my eyes. As Thornton Wilder points out in the final scene of Our Town, we often don’t see how beautiful and precious each day, each moment of our ordinary lives is.

So, if I must admit to any resolutions for 2012, it will be to be aware of and appreciate more all that I too often take for granted, and to live more in the present than straining for the future.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor