52 weeks of blessings;

Gratitude Sunday

Nicky12 Comments

Today:

  • I’m feeling: peaceful.
  • I’m listening to: the sounds of my neighborhood.
  • I’m thinking: of the week past and what I need to learn from it.  Of what I’ll need to do for a possible career change.   Of a trip to Ikea.
  • I’m looking forward to: extra daylight after a long, brutal winter.
  • I’m learning: patience.
  • I’m enjoying: quiet, being able to center and extra time I get to enjoy doing the things that rejuvenate me because of my “no T.V” Lenten 2014 fast.  I’m not a big T.V. watcher but even the time I spent doing so took valuable time away from other enriching pursuits.  It’s been quite an eye-opening experience so far.
  • I’m creating: several knit and crochet projects.
  • I’m grateful for: a love package sent by my parents with some of my favourite foods from home.  An all day text marathon with my brother (N).  A “hey how ya doing, I love you” call from my brother (A).  Another unpleasant work situation this week which has made my resolve for personal well-being even more strong.  Girls’ night in with my friend Tamiko.  Wine, food, laughter, shared joys and difficulties was just what the Dr. ordered.   A kick in the pants from my friend Laurie-Ann.  Being challenged to up my creative game. Being reminded that my life is worth defending, improving and enjoying.
  • Around the house are:  open windows.  Soft, cleansing “soon to be Spring” breezes. The scents of a Lavendar and a Blackberry Vanilla candles.
  • I’m planning later in the coming week to: do my taxes.  Get some fresh flowers from the Farmer’s Market.  Practice my spinning on Olga.  My drafting is becoming more fluid but my hand foot coordination still needs work.   Get on my sewing machine to make some much needed pot-holders for my kitchen.
  • My quote/verse for the upcoming week is: in-all-your-ways
  • I’m wishing you: the very best of Sundays and a wonderful week ahead.

the new format for “Gratitude Sunday” is borrowed from “The Simple Woman’s Daybook” series

52/52

Nicky2 Comments

Well it’s here.  The end of the year, the end of my 52 weeks of blessings posts.  I never thought I’d make it to the end, but I did and I’m glad I made the effort.  It was wonderful while taking a blog break to go through each post.  Each was a reminder of some of the issues I dealt with this year and the things/people/reflections/revelations that helped and/or made me grateful/blessed this year.  I’m not going to lie, some weeks, it was hard to see the sunshine through the thick of the “forest” but it was always there!  Sometimes shining brightly, other times, dimly, but still there.  So to end, this week I’m grateful for:

  • All of you who came along on the journey with me.  Your interactions after reading the posts by email, phone call, text message, and commenting / liking the post mean so much to me.  Your support and encouragement really helped me power through the rough weeks and for that I’ll always be grateful.
  • Actually doing this project.  I learned so much about myself.  My ability to deal with certain issues, my inability to deal with others, my triggers, my joys, my tenacity, my faith, my limitations and in many instances, what the definition of my truth is.  It started as a “project” but it ended up being so much more.
  • Good friends.  My friend T aka “Sunshine” came to visit me yesterday.  She came bearing soup for this cold ridden, sick, congested woman.   She came bearing sunshine through laughter and friendship through support and deep sharing of life stories.  I’m honored that she trusts me to share so much with.  Yesterday was a new beginning for us and for that, I truly am grateful to call her friend and to have her call me friend.
  • Rest.  I came down with a head cold on Christmas day and that killed all the fancy plans I had for the day.  Although my Christmas celebration turned out to be more subdued and restful than I’d planned, it was what I needed and that made it just perfect despite my not feeling so well.
  • Making it through the end of the work week.  I had to go to work on Thursday and Friday and it was all I could do to not sleep in my office after taking cold meds.  I’m super grateful that I was able to not sleep — LOLOL! — and get some work done.  I’m even more grateful that I’ll be starting the new year with a week of well needed vacation.  I’ll be off work until Jan 6th and I can’t wait to enjoy some more down time and prepare myself for 2014!
  • Being able to exercise some patience with my computer.  Got up yesterday to a corrupt login.  Since I didn’t want to mess with the registry, I had to do a system restore.  I’m grateful that I had a backup from the last time I logged in 12/21/2013 so I didn’t lose any files.  I’m grateful for my former IT training that allowed me to fix the corrupted log-in and create new profiles in the event this happens again.  I see a Mac book in my future (g.w.)  I bought this machine in May 2012 and the O.S is already acting janky.  I’m so over P.C. issues but I’m glad I was able to fix it. 😀

I’m not sure if I’ll continue this project into next year.  If I don’t, I’ll definitely find some way to honor 2014’s blessings — I’m just not sure how yet.

I hope you each had a wonderful Christmas, a well-rounded year, and cheers for all the lessons, blessings and moments of gratitude / contentment we experienced in 2013!  ❤