2010 Final Thoughts

It's New Years Eve and I am home alone. I guess I'm not alone if you count the dogs. The girls are at parties and Nancie is stuck working at the hospital. So it's just me this time.

How was your year?

We all have an opinion about the year 2010. My opinion may mean nothing to you but I have reflected a lot about the past year and, although there have been some storms and rocky roads, 2010 goes into the record books as a positive game changer for me. Hopefully because I have changed in 2010 for the better.

I just finished my Year of Status Updates on Facebook. It reads more like a list of quotes than anything else. I guess I should have saved the blogging for this site instead of thinking outloud on a Facebook Status. Oh well, here were some of my favorite Facebook Status Updates.

It is going to be a different summer this year. After 24 years of marching band, I won't be doing any shows this year. 17 years of a really great adventure! Can' wait to see what the rest of eternity will be like! I just cannot thank God enough for my traveling companion!!! To Karl: Thanks for pushing my thinking and setting a standard for me to reach for. Glad I can call you Dad! Bye Grandma You will always be remembered and loved. Family funerals are emotional wake up calls. Wag more, bark less! Tucking the girls in bed after getting them spiritually ready for school. Very thankful for the little things and the little ones. Friendliness is a form of generosity. Choose to be friendly! We want what we want until what we want is what we have. You get out of life what you put into it. Knowledge isn't power it's empowering and it is only empowering when it is used. " If you treat [an individual] as he is he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he. . . could be [and might be], he will [become what he ought to be]" Goethe. "Dreams come a size too big so you can grow into them." Josie Bissett. Next time you suppose your life has taken a wrong turn ask yourself this question: How do I know it is a bad thing? And when it appears that things are turning out for the better ask yourself: How do I know that it is a good thing? Lasting relationships succeed because they continue to grow. No one can do the job that you were meant to do. More often than not, a mighty change of heart is subtle not sudden. A person becomes like the company which he chooses to keep. The real power of agency is that we make life happen instead of letting life happen. We act on something instead of being acted upon. We become proactive instead of reactive. Life becomes chess instead of checkers. Faith is the fuel that keeps me moving forward. Covenants are powerful motivators. Happy Birthday to my beautiful little Makall. Love you sweetie!! To a most beautiful and very talented 15 year old: Happy Birthday McKenna!!! As I get gifts ready for my children, I realize that my children are the real gifts! True gifts first begin in the heart. Sometimes it takes a death to bring us back to life. To me, the true gift of Christmas is a gift that cannot be held, it can only be felt. To my family and friends this Christmas Eve: Have a Merry Christmas!! Of all the great discoveries in the world, perhaps the greatest are just the little ones we discover for ourselves about how to live, how to love, how to act and how to treat others. We may not discover a new invention or a new medicine, but we may just find the missing pieces that can fix our own lives.

If you read this on Facebook, sorry for the repeat.

Goodnight and goodbye 2010. In fact, goodnight and goodbye to an entire decade. 10 years in the making: full of moments and memories that will last an eternity.

At the end of the day, at the end of it all, when all is said and done, this year, this decade, and my entire life, so far, have been so full of so many wonderful gifts and blessings. I have no room to complain.

Happy New Year!! Happy New Decade!!