For weeks I pondered what I would write as my year-end review on here. I still wonder how this post will capture all the events, emotions, and lessons of 2011. Perhaps the lessons are not clear yet as I experienced nearly every emotion in the spectrum of human experience this year. Great joy, heaps of doubt, anger, sadness, and hope -- I experienced them all deeply. I continue cycling through all of those emotions. I sometimes wonder how my husband, family, and friends deal with me because I have a tendency to focus on the negative versus the positive. I am often too cynical for my own good and mental health.
When I entered 2011, I felt great relief because I was at the tail-end of wedding planning. All that was left were smaller details, so I didn't feel like a "To Do List" hung over my head every day. At the start of the year, Jacob and I also knew we would open a CrossFit gym (a.k.a., box) once our lease at the apartment ended, so we both felt excited, anxious, and hopeful for the next phase of our lives -- together.
Now that the end of 2011 is eminent, I look back and see this year was full of overwhelming abundance. Abundance is defined as:
1. an extremely plentiful or oversufficient quantity or supply: an abundance of grain.I experienced every aspect of this definition this year -- positively and negatively. 2011 was a flood of emotions and experiences. As the waters of change recede, I feel myself emerging renewed, richer, and more inspired, just as the shores of the river emerge more fertile after a flood. While at times -- especially during the past four months (and even now), I felt as if I was drowning under worry, doubt, and frustration -- I felt buoyed up by the hope and support emanating from all those I love and who love me. Thank you for celebrating the highs, crying through the lows, and especially for laughing through it all. This year challenged me in so many new, foreign, and exciting ways. I prayed for grace numerous times, seeking wisdom, peace, and calm to weather the many changes, missteps, mistakes, and unfounded worries. Grace came in the form of every hopeful comment and every bit of congratulations mouthed or written by all of you.
2. overflowing fullness: abundance of the heart.
3. affluence; wealth: the enjoyment of abundance.
I am blessed with an abundance of loving family members, dynamic and adventurous friends (new and old), happy circumstances, and stubborn resolve. Heading into 2012, Jacob and I have a thriving and growing CrossFit box filled with supportive and enthusiastic athletes. We are surrounded by family in a beautiful place on the shores of the mighty Mississippi. The beauty of the fall, and a thusfar mild and uneventful winter eased this Florida girl back into the pace and seasons of the Midwest. I had more for which to be thankful this year than for which to be fretful and I am excited for where the new year will take us all.
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