At the end of this year - be thankful!

I decided to start this blog for two reasons....

The FIRST reason being that I used to be an avid journalist - dozens of those wonderful books are packed in my storage unit and there are even a few stacked by my bedside - now gathering dust. With the accumulation of life and time, this is one thing that ended up by the wayside. This is one passion that I've followed since college when my campus mom gave me a journal as a Christmas gift and told me that I had so much going on in my head that she wanted to see me put it all down on paper and record what all that stuff was and where my life would take me. I look back at all those books and I see the passage of time and where God has brought me and what he's done - I'm amazed and intrigued. I think anyone's life is this progressive story of change and molding and wonderfulness.

I had so many times in the past years where I've picked the pen back up and then sat looking dumbly at the blank page, only to drop my pen and pick up a book of someone's else's life. Too tired and - I guess I just didn't care anymore.

When dad passed away in October, I went through all these emotions and one day, I once again picked up the pen, determined to record where my thoughts were and how I was reacting to what had happened. I was SO faithful -- for two days...

Now I'm putting myself into accountability. When people are expecting something of me, I'm much more likely to deliver. So now - I'm delivering -- and hopefully it will last.

The SECOND reason is due to a comment that was made last week that reflects a lot of comments that are made to me. I was working with a rep in Richmond and he had spent the good portion of the day in stories to me and his customers about the holidays with his wife and how his three daughters were challenging him as three daughters will do. At the end of the day, we were walking down to a meeting and he asked me if I was married to which I responded "no" and to which he then replied "how did you win the lottery on that one?!"

I admit that I get to do so many amazing things with my time and my life and I know that I'm truly blessed and I am so thankful. I think most people look at what opportunities I have and are a little, shall we say, jealous. I must also admit that after, somewhere around 9 years of doing with my life what I am doing with my life, it has become a little redundant and boring sometimes. I know that sounds crazy, but true it is.

The picture I attached with this post is a picture of me. Its me doing something that I love to do in the time that I have between travelling and work and church and family, its something my dad loved to do and something that he bequeathed to me when he bought me a little pair of cross country skis that strapped onto my little boots with little handmade bamboo poles. I love being out in the snow, especially a new fall of snow, with nothing but me, the swoosh of my skis and the crunch as my poles hit the ground. Its quiet and it gives me time to just be inside my head with no demands but getting up the next hill. The picture is of me cross country skiing, but I don't usually have the luxury of having someone with me to take a picture of me (which I don't terribly mind as I don't necessarily love being IN pictures). So, I'm usually taking some creative picture of my shadow or just going for a straight landscape picture, or just lazy enough to not even take pictures.

So - enjoy a year in my life. Snapshots of a beach or of a shadow of me on the beach...

And while you're enjoying those pictures and longingly looking at the weeks that I get to be in warm Florida (for work) while you're buried in snow in Chicago... remember to be thankful. Be thankful for your families and your demands and all that God has in your life. Just like I try to remember to be thankful for my opportunities and for the job that I have and the chance I get to share so much with so many people. The gift is not where you are, but the gift that God gives you is the thankfulness to be where you are and see it as God's gift for your life and for others. I know that everything my dad did in life and all that he gave to us and did for us, it doesn't matter now except what benefitted and glorified God. Thats all he cares about and all God cares about. Use where God has you and see the green on your side of the fence... because I can tell you, its not always green on the other side!

Merry Christmas and happy new year wherever God has you and whoever He has you with!