Here's to 27

What a year.  The year I did not birth a child!  (Calm down, I want more babies.)

26 was solid and wonderful and weird and challenging.  I dyed my hair blonde again.  We went to the Portland zoo. We traveled to San Diego.  Our son was baptized.  I began taking fitness seriously.  We paid off our car 2 years early.  My depression resurfaced.  I (finally) won my fight with agoraphobia.  I drove by myself again.  I had a couple really bad panic attacks.  Our good friends from college came out to visit us in Portland.  My best friend made a trip out West to see us.  I went back on anti-depressants.  We lived in a basement.  We drove and moved across country.  Tim and I got to go on our honeymoon.  We moved into another apartment.  I got to see snow (and a lot of it).  I experienced the crisp, fresh air of a Midwestern Fall.  I got to eat my favorite ice cream on the planet.  I dropped a pant size.  I got to celebrate my best friend's birthday with her.  I was complimented on having a positive attitude.  I took my kids to a cider mill.  I took a full-time job.  I got to lay on Haystack Beach in Oregon and eat dinner as the sun set in Idaho.  I saw Wyoming and Montana.  I witnessed one of my good friends get married.  I gained perspective.  I smiled at someone who was not kind to me.  I sent a 'thank you' to someone I hadn't spoken to in years.  I accepted an invitation to be interviewed for a podcast.

























My life has always been a series of moments to be thankful for, but it was only during this past year that I chose to look and live my life through that lens.  My birthdays have become a mini-New Year for me.  They've become this annual internal marker for asking myself the question what can I do now?  How can I challenge myself now?  How was this past year?  When we lived out West, we were consistently working to move East and that always posed a challenge for us in some way.  Now that we've reached our goal, I don't want to become stagnant in growth.  I want to keep moving forward.  I want to take a kick-boxing class and bike and roller blade.    I want to pay off more debt.  I want to up my writing schedule and plan a vacation.

I look back on this past year and think I'm just grateful.  I'm so thankful for what we have and what we wanted and didn't get 'cause all of it led us here.  365 days of adventures and new chapters have closed.

Let the next 365 days begin.

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