EMBRACING LIFE IN 2008…..

Okay, when I first saw this stamp set I jumped for joy(metaphorically speaking for anyone who really knows me I am really not the “actual jump for joy” type) at one that really looked like I would LOVE it!! Ordered it as soon as we could, all the time thinking, word stamp,Embrace Life,,,what were they thinking? Like hmmmmm, who do you give an embrace life card to anyway?? (as if I ever send 1/2 the cards I make ANYWAY….)but I was thinking I wish they would just make more HB and Thinking of you and Thanks stamps and lay off the EMBRACE LIFE stamps, or the Delight in this or that stamps……but hey- upon deeper thinking and further reflection I stand corrected. The stage I am at in life right now, I should send MYSELF an Embrace Life card everyday!! And I could also send one to all my menopausal, empty nester friends as well on a daily basis!!
Look at my life with me for a bit……I am living hundreds of miles from most of my family and friends……I am working really long hours, I am separated from my husband all week who I worked side by side with for 23 years…..and the list COULD go on….but I will stop there, isnt’ that plenty enough to feel sorry for myself about?? BUT, if we turn it around and look at it THIS way, look what happens…..I live in my beautiful little dream house in a beautiful little town surrounded by potential new friends, my daughter and her husband and our grand dog Moseley live right across town, I work hard at a new job I find challenging and FUN, I am temporarily separated from my husband so he can get a job locally after doing over the road time for experience,(meanwhile we talk on the phone a gazillion times a day thanks to verizon to verizon free minutes) I have children who live far from me but love me and stay in touch with me, I have 5 beautiful and HEALTHY grand daughters and a golden retriever who is faithful and loyal and loving and keeps me company on lonely nights……AND I HAVE AN AWESOME STAMP ROOM TO BOOT……I have so much TO BE THANKFUL FOR!! So, as Mary Engelbreigt says, Life is 10 percent about what happens to you and 90 percent about what you do with what happens to you…..I love that!! I work with a young girl right now who has suffered with health maladies since she was born prematurely….Her latest battle has been with cysts on her optic nerves that cause her to go blind….one eye is pretty much blind at this point unless she takes large doses of steriods, the other eye has temporarily gone blind on her two times. Her attitude has taught me so much……her standard answer to any situation where she could feel sorry for herself is, “It’s only an eyeball and I still have one that works”. So much wisdom from a 22 year old. Her standard line to me if I am feeling sorry for myself about something is “At least you have 2 eyeballs that work” – Very true…..at times it has taken an extra measure of grace not to fire a smart remark back at her when she says that but you know why? Because she’s RIGHT……We all have so much to be thankful for, and yet I for one find myself focusing on the half empty part of the glass too often. I had a nice long talk with a friend in my DL who called last night – as we talked on, and we don’t know eachother really well, have just always sensed a kindred spirit in eachother, we discovered that our lives are pretty similar. We both love to stamp, we both love Mary Engelbreigt, we are both Christians who try to love and follow God, we are both big worriers and we tend to focus too much on worrying about our adult children. We both miss our grand children a LOT. As we talked we both realized we need to focus on the positive at this stage in life and to really EMBRACE LIFE!! I really enjoyed that nice long chat SUE!! 🙂 I think this is going to be my New Year’s Resolution!! Last year it was to lose weight, and I now attend Curves regularly and have lost the post Ohio weight that crept on(about 10 pounds) when I ate my way thru loneliness and probably an additional 6 or 7 pounds after that – So hopefully I will be equally as happy with my resolution to COUNT MY BLESSINGS MORE next year!! I do count my blessings, but I feel like I live on the edge of sadness alot, and I want to move. 🙂 🙂 Perspective is everything. Last year Keith and I cleaned models every Friday night and I used to say to him, I really enjoy Friday nights…..we would always go out to eat, then go clean models, which is great as far as cleaning goes, if you have to clean, it’s better to clean stuff that never actually gets used……but Keith would always say, I can think of lots of things I would rather do with you then clean models though, and then this year I said to him, “Wouldn’t it be great to clean models on Friday nights again?” and he chuckled and said yes, since now we don’t SEE eachother till sometime on Saturday……..and there you have it- perspective. We should not complain about our present situation cuz comically, we need to realize our next could be WORSE. And if we are really just passing thru this life and I believe we are and our purpose is to grow closer to and more LIKE JESUS, then we should really and truly EMBRACE LIFE and count our blessings and enjoy the ride!! That’s what I intend to do in 2008….Happy New Year everyone – Hope you enjoyed the cards and the blab, and don’t forget to read on for the Christmas blog…..it’s pretty funny and not so heavy!! Happy New Year!!