“If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

After a super long break from this whole blog thing, I’m taking another stab at it. Not because I think I’m particularly good at it but because I think it was good for me.  As tends to happen over the course of time, a lot has changed in the last year. A new job & all the challenges that come with it, new people have come into my life, others have gone, we’ve had weddings and new babies, and even a couple of PR’s (those make me happiestJ).  Recently, several people close to me have been navigating through some tough stuff. Real life, surprise you’re an adult & these are the cards you were dealt, type stuff. Whether we recognize it or not, when the people we love are struggling, I think we can find ourselves having a hard time too. Kind of a chain reaction in a way and once it starts you don’t always realize the way it affects you. One minute you’re feeling pretty okay and the next you’re like “eh, today was tough, I think I’ll eat this bag of chocolate chips and see if that makes me feel better.”  It won’t, trust me and it sure as hell isn’t going to make someone well again or fix a bad situation.

What I’ve been trying to do over the last several months is to take a moment, when things are good to simply recognize that feeling. I saw this quote the other day and I immediately thought, “yeah, exactly, keep doing THAT” Now, I haven’t gotten all crazy and kept a “gratitude” journal about it or anything but if I think about it I can remember those moments, how I felt and why I felt that way. And it helps, way more than the chocolate ever could. I’ve appreciated the happy stuff while it was happening and I’m so glad I did.  Life changes, so fast, the things that impact your life the most aren’t the things that you planned for.

So now I’m looking ahead to new changes and a new adventure in front of me. Luckily, I have this arsenal of good memories to hang on to, along with a few trust worthy people who helped me make them. Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, I’m going to focus on what can go right. How do I want to move through this so that I’m making the best of it? Taking a little stock in what it took to get here and using it as motivation to keep moving forward. As for the chocolate chips, am I giving them up? Hell no, just means a little more willing to share the bag.