Tuesday, February 21, 2012

2012. . . The year of contentment

I have started a new blog entry in my head countless times since last September. It's about time I actually type one out. . .
So much has happened since my last entry.


"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

~Andy Warhol


~ I had my last day at the Early Head Start program, picked up more hours at Starbucks and once again began the search for my dream job.

~ I went on that trip to New York. It was wonderful! I ate my way through the city and celebrated my birthday in style.


~ I celebrated the holidays with my family.

~ I've also spent a lot of time watching my adorable nephew, Victor. And eagerly awaited the arrival of my new niece or nephew. She arrived last Wednesday. Mila Rose is absolutely beautiful.


I also struggled at the begininng of the year trying to decide whether or not to make any resolutions. Last year I went crazy and made seven or eight small ones that I intended to do every day and even created a checklist to keep track of everything. I did really well until about May, then it pretty much crumbled and I ditched the checklist and most of the resolutions. This year I wanted to do something more realistic. And so I grappled with ideas in my head, when one day in early January I saw a friend's facebook post and she announced that she had found her 'word' for 2012. So, I decided to steal her idea and come up with a word for the year that I would focus on. That was the challenging part. . .

I came up with a bunch of words, but none of them seemed to fit. I kept the search in my head, but continued on with life. Then one day around mid January, I started answering people's question of "How are you?" with "Great" instead of my usual, "Ok" or "Tired, but ok." The more I said that I was great, the more I started to actually feel great. It was like a self-fulfiling prophecy. Of course I was tired - I had been up since 4:00 in the morning. But really, my life isn't so bad. I'm certainly not in a place that I expected to be at this point in my life, but that doesn't make it bad. I am healthy. I have a great, albeit crazy, family. I have wonderful friends. I have a job. There are definitely improvements that I want to make and I am working on them - slowly, but surely. In the meantime I have decided to be content. Content with my life right now, in the present. Content with the changes I am trying to make. Content with the speed at which things are happening. And content with me. With that being said, I decided to make 'Contentment' my word for 2012. So far, I'm feeling pretty content.


"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back."
~Arthur Rubinstein