At the end of the year, it's usually customary to look back at how it has treated you.
I always said I am more than happy to kiss 2015 goodbye. Twas not a great year on the surface. I found it ironic that was the year I chose to piggyback onto the idea of my 100 Happy Days project that it was one of the worst years for minor health issues and people showing their true colors. Maybe God knew I'd need to focus on the positive? Since it didn't seem so hard to do just over 3 months, we thought why not make it a whole year? I followed the rules by writing about the happy moments, the Mr chose to basically journal. Whatever floats your boat. ;-P
I will admit, there were times it was not easy to find the happiness in a day.
3/13- Allergy testing came back positive to mites, ragweed and mold. Had money to pay for $550 gas leak repair. Didn't blow up.
7/9- Good cleansing cry about Grandma before workout and 90 minute talk.
7/22- Didn't put the new knife through Mr's paddleboard for telling MIL about Grandma
9/23- Got in 4 bottles of water, woke up
12/6- Didn’t slap stupid people
Some days you just thank God you didn't need to call anyone for bail money and that may be the only good thing that happened in an otherwise crap day.
Then there were things that truly made me smile as I read back on them.
1/26- Fresh snow on tree branches.
3/24- Got my first professional massage!
5/4- Sunrise at Tybee Island, seeing Efron and DeNiro filming Dirty Grandpa, great dinner at Olde Pink House in Savannah.
5/18- Paid for an elderly couple's meal at Sunny's Cafe
8/27- Amazing night paddle with Amy. Light sticks worked to mark return ramp. Paddled under big dipper. So peaceful.
9/3- chipmunk eating fruit on the loveseat outside stuffing his cheeks. I named him Dale.
10/28- slept in, talked to grandma in dream
12/18- Woodsy got her box and cried over it and sent me a great email thanking me, snowed for 3.4 minutes.
Happy moments can be as big as a special vacation to a new place or as small as doing something for someone else to make them happy or a chipmunk stuffing its cheeks.
I'm glad I did that because I could very easily remember nothing but me not being able to smell or taste for four months or the eye problems the Mr and I both got at the same time that we're still dealing with or other little ailments that all stack up or the fact that Christmas blew this year. But if you focus on those things, it can consume you and consume a full year of tiny moments you chose to ignore. Writing down these happy moments in a day when all you can be happy about is the fact that you woke up is still a pretty good day. Some people don't know how I did it so consistently and all I did was set a task in my mail program to pop up at 8-9pm every night for the Mr and I with a reminder to do it and we both kept it up.
If we lose those small moments when everything else seems to be swallowing the good things, we can mistake a bad day(s) for a bad life. That's not the case 99% of the time.
Will you consider doing a happy year for 2016? We are!
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It was definitely an exercise in proving that you always get a mix of good and bad, so why not focus on the good, right? As I say goodbye to 2015 I feel like overall it was a good year but still can't help but be hopeful that 2016 is so much more. So here's to 2016 everyone!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try to do this as well. I have a friend who continuously paints me as a negative person, I know I could be more positive.
ReplyDeleteI have a calendar appointment so starting tomorrow, at 830pm, it'll ring. I also carry a planner for the year so I'll jot in there next to my doctor's appointments.
The chipmunk one sounds the coolest. I remember you mentioning the 100 days then I saw something shiny and forgot about it!
ReplyDeleteI'm def gonna do this for all of 2016.
Here's to a fab 2016!
It's something I intended to do, and then life got in the way. I think I'm going to pick up a weekly calendar/planner today so that I can start tomorrow. I need to work on focusing on the positive because this is going to be another tough year for me in some ways.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to add another word to my word of the year thing I do. Last year I chose patience and worked very hard on being patient. This year I'm going to continue working on patience, but I'm going to add action. There are many things I need to stop thinking about and start taking action on. I don't want to end another year with those things undone. As I do those things (some of them unpleasant) I want to focus on the positives in my life so this will fit right in.
The chipmunk sounds too cute. And I've had days where just getting up is a victory too.