Twentysix

Are you there, Reader-friend? It's me, Natalie! Back in action and ready for a twothousandtwelve of greatness.

Miami managed to lure me back months ago, and I've spent the great part of these months acclimating anew to the city's sweeping currents. Swiftly, the city that turned her back to me after a mere 11-month absence has turned again and revealed bright bits of her heart hovering right beneath her surface. And this time I am seeing things I never knew were here -- piercing previously murky waters with newfound perspectives.

'What you see depends on where you stand.'

I pulled that quote from a piece on social justice lawyering a friend recently recommended. It resonates with me because I am so touched by the experience of finding unadulterated novelty in the profoundly familiar -- seeing things others cannot.

The quote also resonates with me because it connects to one of my designated themes for 2012: humility. I am a big believer in the power of words, and one I have (literally) hung around my life for several years is 'humility.'

I have found that as I traverse this life, trapezing from one experience to the next, the greatest lessons learned have been those with humbling effects. Through humility one learns to truly see: the beauty of places, the hope of circumstances, the dignity of people, the value of life.

And it is through these humbled eyes I hope to reveal what can be forgotten in the familiar -- contained in a community, a country, our people and our world.