It's almost time to ring in the new year. Looking back, this year has been a year of many ups and downs for me. I'm sure many of you can relate. Life is like that. We take the good with the bad, and then we press on. The key here is that we press on.
In the past, pressing on has been the difficult part for me. I have a tendency to get caught up in thinking too much about past events. It's a dangerous rabbit hole to fall into, for sure. The descent into darkness is often quick, and getting out of it can feel like climbing a mountain. It is best to focus on the future, rather than try to live in the past.
Honestly, I'm still a work in progress in this area, but I continue to try. To me, this is the beauty of celebrating the new year. It's not just good a time to spend time with family and friends; it's a great time to leave the past in the past and look to the future. A new year brings new opportunities. The new year is a new chance to live the life you want, rather than think about how everything went wrong in the past year.
We can't change our past, but we can take what we have learned and move forward. New year means new beginnings. It's time to make all those changes for the better. I don't just mean resolutions that will fall away in a few weeks, either. Set some big goals, dare to dream big, and really go out there and live the life you always hoped was possible. Let nothing hold you back, especially not bad memories from the past.
Happy New Year, my friends! Let us welcome 2014 and leave 2013 where it belongs. Make new memories and make your dreams come true. Be blessed. See you in 2014!
I can't believe it is Thanksgiving already. Where has the time gone? This has been a year of ups and downs for me. In life, it is all too easy to get caught up in focusing on the bad and forgetting to be thankful for all that is good in my life. Thankfulness is essential. Giving thanks changes your heart. It takes your heart from a place of want to a place of praise. If you can remember to be thankful during the difficult times, you can find peace in the midst of life's storms.
I know when I spend too much time thinking about the things I want versus being thankful for all that I already have my heart is not in the right place. It's funny; I read a meme the other day that said: "November...the month where people who have complained on Facebook for the past 11 months become thankful for 30 days." I laughed, of course; but there is some truth in that statement. This should not be. Being thankful should be an all the time thing, not a seasonal one.
I have been blessed with plenty, even in the times when I have been the most down. The blessings may not have always been evident to me at the time, but looking back, I can see where the blessings were. I can pick out times when the words of a friend lifted me back up. I see the times where I thought I just could not go on, but somehow I made it through. There were definitely times where the kindness of strangers made all the difference in the world. I am thankful for all of these moments and the people who helped me make it through.
I'm still a work in progress in this area. I still need reminders to be thankful, so this is a good week for this post. One day I hope I will be able to be thankful during any situation in life, but I'm not there yet. Life can be crazy sometimes, but when I take the time to focus, I do find I almost always have something to be thankful for. Sometimes I am too blind to see it, but when I do, I really do find peace in the middle of life's storms. During this Thanksgiving week, I hope you will too.
