Thank You 2012

Being up the Sunshine Coast here, resting in our family’s cabin, it is easy to forget the hectic schedule that December delivers. Here, from a cozy chair I can gaze out the window and watch boats sail by, eagles soar and I am easily enveloped by the tranquility that this sacred place offers .

Sharing this peaceful time with my family,  including my husband’s parents has been a beautiful reprieve. It is lovely to hunker down and just be. The children are in their element. There is no place that they love more, or people that they adore more, so being up here has been the perfect medicine for all of us.

My in-laws left today and were only here for a quick overnighter. So it returns as it is each year at this time, there are just the four of us and our dogs up here to say good bye to the year and to welcome in the new one. It gives me great joy to spend this quiet time reflecting on the year and revisiting the lessons and blessings while sending out thoughtful intentions out for the new year.

I usually write out some goals and revisit past ones and do an inventory of the successes and do some reconsidering of the ones that did not come to fruition and then giving a good hard look at why that might be and what lessons came from it. Half the time the lessons of the failures were the whole point rather than the completion of the goal. Besides, you can always have a retry at the goals that were unfulfilled, at least I believe so.

2012 was quite the year. I think that if you read my blog, you know of my blessings and lessons so I need not go into detail here. It’s safe to say that it was a big year of

great things, and of great extremes.  Our family saw great adventure and greater adversity in the way of ailing health and wellness. Please keep my family in your prayers as we head into 2013.

If I were to sum up 2012 I would have to focus on Faith. This year I found that I turned to faith in a bigger way than I ever have before. That will happen to you when someone you love’s health is in jeopardy. You will turn to faith to keep you in the light when the shadows come calling.

I have always enjoyed having that solid belief system in something bigger than me. After several years of losing people that I loved very much, I turned from my faith and began to question all things related. I have always been a spiritual person. But in the face of great loss, and great questions surrounding the why that comes along with it, I have paid little attention to the God in things. I have focused on the light and love more and ignored the source you could say. Losing so many important people in such a small period of time was just too much pain, and I had a hard time believing that there was a God that would orchestrate such darkness. And then with the arrival of my nephew’s illness, I had no where else to turn but to God. The doctors do not have all of the answers and the ones that they do have are not serving my nephew’s health in the way that we need right now.

People always balk at the word God. I am not talking about Jesus or the other prophets that make many people cringe, I am talking about the life source in the world. There are so many questions I have regarding God, but what I do know, is that I have spent dozens of hours praying for my young nephew this year and each time I have finished, I have honestly felt better. There is something to be said for that.

I have high hopes for 2013. I have a long list of hopes and dreams that I plan on meeting along the road to fruition. First and foremost, a cure for my precious nephew and for all those out there fighting for their lives. I have a wish to see my beautiful children grow strong and healthy and to prosper in all they do. I hope that my husband continues to feel loved and to find solace in his work and play. I want my friends and family to love and be loved, to find fortune of heart and spirit where ever they go and to find the peace in spirit as I have this year.

I want to continue to live a generous life where I put others before myself and I want to be a role model to my children that no matter what happens to you in any given day, your happiness is directly linked to your attitude. With a positive attitude and a healthy outlook, anything is possible and nothing is quite that bad.

In 2013 I want to continue 2012’s theme of simplifying. I want to simplify on a grand scale of small things. Everything from the linen closet to the circle of people I share my life with. I want to just bring everything to a cleaner more user friendly state of being that supports a healthy and happy existence for my immediate family and myself and that will further solidify the amazing foundation I have built with my nearest and dearest, including those whom I wish to build one with.

2013 promises to bring many blessings, but this year I don’t have a long wish list of gifts I want to ask of her, I just want more of the same and I want to need less of it.

I feel that I have been so blessed, that I just want to have a quiet, low maintenance year where I find all of my gifts are in the giving. A place and a way of life I have come to have deep appreciation for.

Being up here at the cabin and away from our daily routine, I am offered a clarity that I would not otherwise have. At home there is always a chore list, jewelry to make, friends to call back, where up here, the world stops and the quiet moves in.

There is a stillness here that allows you to catch up with your inner voice and to really stop and listen to what the universe has put in front of you.

Since I have been up here, the word that keeps coming to mind in my head is gratitude. I am just so grateful for a blessed year of life long memories and lessons that will re-gift them selves to me for as long as I live. I have beloved friends and family that make me feel loved and appreciated and I have you, a crew of people that somehow find some value in hearing about my journey through this crazy life.

Thank you for continuing to read my blog, and I continue to hope that you find a small piece that speaks to your heart and that somehow inspires you. I hope that there is a little piece of me that resonates with you and that makes you feel heard, understood or at the very least that there is a kindred spirit out there that is learning some of the same lessons as you.

From my heart to yours,

Happy New Year.

love & light,

t.