What's New?

I went to a meeting today during which I was asked "What's new?" My response was pretty much a blank stare, followed by a desperate search for something--ANYTHING--to say. The other people, while perhaps not so desperately searching, were similarly blank.
 
The truth is, in lives as busy as ours, there are actually new things every day--every hour. Yet, when we are called upon to report what is new, all those "new" things seem either trivial or so embedded in our everyday life that they don't bear mentioning. What people are generally looking for are new jobs, new schools, marriages, births, deaths, and awards, and these "new" things just don't happen that often.
 
After surviving that moment of the blank stare, I returned home thinking a lot about that "What's new?" question. While the daily new things in our lives might not be worth including when someone asks us, they are worth our registering--even celebrating. Too often, we just let them blend in with the daily fabric of our lives, which is a tribute to our adaptability. We just don't always give ourselves the credit for handling the "new" or the time for processing it.
 
I suspect that far too many new things will happen for me to stop for each one. And I am fully prepared that my stare will be just as blank when I am asked the next time. It's a big question, and we are generally far more equipped to answer the small ones, like "What time is it?" or "What's for breakfast?" But even if we can't answer for the world, we can remember for ourselves.
 
So, what's new? Something every moment.