Reflection on 2013...hopes for 2014

So, facebook has this cool little thing where you can review your previous year in pictures and posts.

It's kind of nice to relive all the fun -- My Girls' visit here in January, my best time (so far) on a half marathon in Sarasota, getting the Nurse Banana-Hammock, Memphis with My Girls, friends getting married, friends having babies, spending a beautiful, carefree month in the Land of Enchantment with the Rickster.

But, I can't share that on my fb like a lot of my friends are because the very first thing on it is a post I wrote about my friend losing her husband.  I don't want her to have to read that. Her memories of that are with her every day, I know.

It's a lot like most years, for me.  But for some people I care about it's been awful.

And for a few people who have faced the most awful kinds of things, watching them struggle to keep on and to live past their loss has been a real inspiration to me. And, I have been fortunate to have developed a deeper friendship with someone who is a daily model of positivity, mental strength and LIFE, even while she is daily fighting for her life.  She does it without any need for martyrdom or "look at me and my struggle".  In fact, almost no one in our circle of friends even knows what she goes through almost daily -- the nausea, the pain, the fatigue, the trips to the hospital -- because all she ever publicly does is smile and focus on the good in life and she brings joy to the lives of everyone around her.  

Another friend lost both her parents tragically last year, and yet recently, she posted this:

So, I fully realize that for me, it's been a pretty good year.

It's also the year that I determined to live every single day as best I can and to actively fight against negativity.  I want to find the good in every day.  It's definitely a work in progress.  Unfortunately, my initial reaction to a lot of stuff is to bitch about it.  But, I'm learning and I am getting better.

Looking forward to 2014, I will continue to hold myself to a standard of positivity and finding the joy in life and facing whatever challenges come along with the knowledge that life is made up of all of it, the good and the bad.