Let's Try This Again

Sometimes you just need a fresh start.  I keep pulling up the old blog and, instead of adding to it, I feel very frustrated about how behind it is.  So, here we go again.  Ready to celebrate, ready to ramble because let's face it, I'm good at that.  I enjoy writing and really like reading others' blogs (my version of stalking, I suppose).  Sometimes it's really easy to get into the whole, I don't have enough to share and my life is not that exciting, maybe that's true.  But this is my life, I'm doing my best to enjoy it and want to be able to remember it - pictures can make it that much more fun.

It's Christmas day.  I've been so blessed this year.  Overall, I've been healthy.  I so appreciate the fact that I'm able to laugh at myself because, let's face it, that's the best form of my entertainment.  It's not everyone that can say they've fallen into a covered hole or had to have a tow truck call a tow truck to be able to get out of their driveway.  I dare to be different, but sometimes I feel like I can take it to a whole new level.

So here are a few of the life lessons I feel like I've been able to learn this past year:

• You really can set and accomplish goals and achieve them.  I've felt it's good to be a goal setter, but I think after getting my degree and serving my mission, I haven't really set anything substantial.  So, last year, not as New Year's resolutions, I set a few simple things to do.  I wanted to attend sessions in all of the temples in Utah, which my roommate and I finished in September.  I also decided I wanted to read all of the Standard Works (Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) from Christmas to Christmas.  I cut it close, but did finish on the 23rd.  It was a great feeling.  I don't know what my goals for next year will be, but there was a great sense of accomplishment there.
• It really is the simple things in life that can give you the greatest joys.  Again, being able to laugh at yourself is a huge things.  I get so excited when I start a new journal, get a new book, find a fun new website or store.  But maybe one of the greatest joys in life comes from getting a genuine smile, whether from a friend or a total stranger.  There is just something so reassuring.
• I don't always work with the "cream of the crop" people, but I do get to meet some of the most amazing people ever.  People who open their homes to strangers, even within their own families.  People who are willing to put their own lives a little bit on hold for a bit while they take kids to multiple appointments, get them settled in schools, find new routines.  It's just amazing to me.  I've been doing this now for 11 years, but that is still very much my favorite component in this job.
• You can be "recycled" in experiences, but the feelings and experiences are still going to be new.  Whether it's reading something you know you've read before, but having it strike you completely differently; getting the same calling again, but being able to share it with new people.  It just doesn't matter.  
• You're attitude can be EVERYTHING!  I know that I do the same things over and over again, but if I can do it with a smile, it really does make it so much better.  Sometimes, there is a fake it till you make it kind of feeling going, but that's what makes it work at times.
• The best things in life are not things.  I love spending time with my family and friends.  I love hearing the nieces and nephews laughing and just watching them.  There is something great about it and I am so very grateful that they are mine.  They may be frustrated about being stuck with me sometimes, but I absolutely love it.
• My least favorite lesson of the year - the reminder that I really HATE cancer.  My cute 87-year-old grandmother was just diagnosed and started her chemo.  She's a trouper, but there's just so much to not like there.  I don't like thinking of the pain she's going through.  I don't like that my 92-year-old grandfather doesn't completely comprehend it.  I hate that there really isn't anything that I can do other than pray, which is huge, but feels like so much less than what we should be doing.  

Okay, so I didn't really necessarily learn anything great and huge, but sometimes you just really need the reminders. Here's hoping there's more great lessons in life and more wonderful experiences ahead.  It's all about what you are willing to put into things, I suppose.  I know that I don't always put in as much as I should.  Maybe the awareness of that will be a good place to start.

Here's hoping everyone has had a great holiday and will be able to start the new year off right!