How was your 2018?
Even if it wasn't that hot, what good can you take away from it?
As we get ready to close out one year and welcome the next, it's common to take stock of where we are now and where we are going.
For me, it's been an incredible year: one full of hardships and success; sadness and joy; change and stillness; fear and peacefulness.
Because that's how life is, right? It's a series of events, emotions, and states of being that are either good, bad, or neutral, and we often perceive things as "happening to" us. People also tend to take one or two bad things happening as a sign of how things will go. How many times have I seen on social media that "This year is fired!" before it's really even gotten under way?
I challenge you not to do that to yourself this year.
The only thing that is guaranteed in 2019 is that both good and bad will happen, because that's life—but what you make of it is up to you. 2019 will also hold possibility, potential, opportunity, growth, and hope. Which way are you going to see things?
My hope for you as we enter 2019 is that you will consider what I wrote a couple of weeks ago and thank 2018, in some way, for contributing to who you are today. I also hope that you will greet 2019 with open eyes and open hearts to the possibilities that abound.
Photo by Oskars Sylwan on Unsplash |
This post jit home with some things I was already thinking about today... I got a card remindingme that one of our dogs is due for an annual test. This is significant in that it means that she's been with us almost a full year. She is definitely a huge blessing and is a big check mark on the "positive" side of the page for 2018. She is a rescue, and has come so far in learning to be a member of a family and a "normal dog". She makes us smile and laugh daily. The circumstances that brought her to us, though, are definitely one of the "negative" things in 2018... we lost our "lifetime dog" (dog lovers will understand that term) suddenly and traumatically. If you had asked me in the first 48 hours after that (in the first year of January 2018), I may have been one of those saying that the year was fried... at the end of the year, I'm not going to say that. (smile)
ReplyDeleteAs for 2019, we have lots of things to look forward to... I'm definitely going forward with open arms and an open heart1
Happy New Year!
I'm glad this post resonated with you, Paula! Thank you for sharing your "taking stock" with us. It's a perfect example of both the good and the bad and how we process those events. I am so sorry for the loss of your lifetime dog earlier this year (I understand that concept, too); what an awful way to start a year. But as you said, it eventually led to a good thing, your rescue dog. I'm so very glad she has a great home with you and is acclimating well. Happy New Year! <3
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