A Year in Review

It’s been a year. One year since deciding to stay single and away from a relationship. One year of giving myself more importance in my list of priorities. One year to learn it’s ok to be alone. One year.

I was looking back through posts in my blog from a year ago to see how I had changed and if I had managed to keep at least most of my promises to myself. I found this post from July 13th, which I had forgotten I’d even written. Looking over the post, I realized while I hadn’t acomplished everything on the list, I actually did most of it and even a few things I never even contemplated or thought I’d accomplish.

Here’s the original list with comments added:

Must Do

• Get a job. Not only do I have a job, but I’ve never loved working somewhere more.
• Become the healthiest, most fit me ever. (I’ve lost all that baby weight.It took two years. Now I want to drop a few more and tone up. I also want to eat healthier on a daily basis.) DONE! YAY! I’m not where I want to be, but I can actually wear my prom dress. Whoopie!
• Incorporate Yoga into my daily life again. (At one time, I woke up EARLY, did the 5 rites, meditated/prayed, exercised & did yoga DAILY. I want to get back to a regular yoga practice.) Interestingly enough, I haven’t exactly fit yoga in daily, but the first part of that (five rites, meditation/prayer) I recently started again without even remembering this on my list.
• Pick one of the languages I’ve studied & brush up my knowledge. I’d like to be conversational in another language again. I want to be able to say something beyond asking for cognac & cigarettes at the disco, which is what my high school Spanish teacher taught us and what stuck with me. Quiero un cognac. Prefeiro cigarillos. !Vamos a discotheque!) Ok, I didn’t even start this beyond putting an app on my phone. LOL oh well. How important is it really in my growth and day to day life?
• Work on my novel daily or at least 5 days a week. I had to drop this off my list. I put my spiritual, mental and emotional health, as well as my relationship to my children first. I couldn’t fit this in on a daily basis and keep the other more important things in place.
• Start a solid savings plan and pay off any credit card debt. I”m becoming more stable and paying off debt, but hope to do more in the next year.
• Become comfortable eating alone in a restaurant. Totally there. I even go to the movies alone and feel just fine.
• Buy or pick a regular floral bouquet for myself. Meh, I forgot this one. Oh well, it must not’ve been important to me.
• Begin reading more classical and modern-to-become classic literature. I’ve read more literature than I could list here in a paragraph.

• Take a vacation. Due to a friends’ generosity, I get to do this next month. Yay Julie & Maria!
• Buy myself a beautiful piece of expensive jewelry. Not even close, unless $5 counts as expensive. LOL
• Treat me & a friend to a fabulously expensive meal in an upscale restaurant. Did this last week.
• Take an acting class. I don’t know of ANY acting classes where I’m at, but I started guitar lessons. I say it’s substitute-able.

Over all, the most important thing I got from this year was realizing my happiness was not dependent on circumstance or relationships or any external factor. I am responsible for my happiness. And I can experience true joy simply by shifting my thoughts and what my focus is. Once I understood this, so many other truths fell in place it would take more than a month of daily posts to discuss this.

Coming soon! – I made a wonderful, dear, treasured friend who has encouraged me and together walked with me in a spiritual dimension of growth and beauty. It’s such a beautiful experience I want to keep most details private, but I do want to share soon how this communion has impacted me and deepened me.