Before every wedding ceremony I like to sneak away and take a few minutes to myself. A sort of reset from all the hustle and bustle that is the wedding day morning. I found a nice quiet spot in the back of the beautiful stone mansion and leaned against the cold brick wall, the sun beaming down on my face. The warmth felt so good. Two sparrows played in the branches of a tall oak that during the summer months would cast a welcomed shade upon the open courtyard below. But this crisp January morning the oak was bare and the sparrows found a wonderland in the absence of life, hopping from one branch to the next never straying to far from one another. I found that watching them helped to clear my mind. Today would mark my first wedding of 2011 and I found my thoughts began to drift over the previous year. The struggles. The joy. Everything in between. I couldn’t help but  ponder who I was then. Who I am now. And today, more than any other, who I will become. And in that moment I became overwhelmed with gratitude for fresh starts and new beginnings. I smiled as I inserted a fresh memory card into my camera before jumping to my feet. The two sparrows who took off in a flutter leaving only the silhouette of a naked branch. As I rounded the corner I ran into Derek. apparently lost in his own thoughts. For him it wasn’t just a new year. It was new life. In moments he would become a new man with a new wife and all at once my own responsiblities seemed small in comparison. I patted him on the back. “Are you ready?” I asked. He looked at me and grinned. “I think so. Are you?” returning the question. I thought about it for a moment. “I think so too. I think so…”