Serenity and Blessings

posted 25th November 2011    Written by: Kristen    CATEGORY: Family, Kristen, Life Lesson, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 5, Spirituality, What I've Learned

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday because it combines two of my favorite things- family and food. The excitement for the Thanksgiving meal to me is more than gifts at Christmas. This year I looked forward to Thanksgiving more than ever before but not because of the amazing spread and annual Cranium game after the meal, but because this year I am truly thankful for my life and everything in it in a new way.

It’s been a rough few years for me and I finally feel like myself again. Saturday November 5th was the first time in almost two years that I felt truly alive. It was one of those perfect fall days with a sunny sky and I was positively filled with glee. It was also one of the first weekends all to myself to do what I wanted without errands or chores. I went vintage shopping with my best girlfriend. Read in my sunroom with tea. Had dinner with friends and family. It was perfection and I realized– this was it.  This was the life I imagined for myself years ago.

I am filled with such amazing self-love and joy that I was able to come to that moment- to realize that I had risen above the Quarter Life Crisis and ending of a relationship to get to a place where I felt completely at peace. Of course, I want to continue to evolve to be that person I was that Saturday every day. But on that day, I was completely filled with the calm feeling of grace and love that had escaped me.

This year I feel I need to, more than ever, make public announcements of the immense gratitude and blessings I have in my life. I am overwhelmed with happiness and humility at all that is amazing in my life. There have been more times in the past five months where I have been speechless or overcome with such intense emotion and thanks for people, events, sights, etc., than I think ever before in my life.

There isn’t enough blog space in the world for me to express my deep feelings of adoration, thanks, and respect for my family as I’ve worked through the process of the divorce. Their unending support, emails, small gifts, and hugs have pulled me through some pretty dark moments. They are my foundation, my rock, and without them I seriously do not know where I would be.

My close friends who I consider my family were the ones who helped me to see the downward spiral I was in- reaching out and providing insights and support even before I knew I needed it. Without one particular amazing girlfriend I would have never known about the Stratejoy website or started to think about what I wanted for my life, and definitely never ever pushed myself to ask some really tough questions. To say thank you to her doesn’t seem enough. Other friends offered dinners out, listening ears, and plentiful distractions, as well as the push to get me out of my pajamas, off the couch, and back to living a fabulous life.

I am incredibly blessed to have a job I love and unbelievable coworkers who inspire me every day. I have hit the job lottery in terms of having a group of people who feel more like family than colleagues.

The mentors, teachers, and colleagues who have had an impact on my life and career are people who are never thanked enough, but I realize now, play an important part of who I am. There are so many to name and thank in different ways because of the significant impact on my life.

I am thankful for my good health and my ability to take care of myself with healthy food, long baths, yoga, and meditation. I am blessed with a house over my head that I own and a financial situation that while tight, allows me to still enjoy a dinner out every now and again and still make the bills.

I am grateful to live in a country where I can do what I want with my body, protest what I might, vote for what I think is the right decision, and express myself in whatever way I want.

I’m over the moon for Molly, her amazing Stratejoy idea, the rocking Tribe, and the new relationships I’m cultivating because of it. Without this site, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to realize that things were not right in my world or if I even would have questioned it at all– just would have continued a mundane existence for years and years. Now to be part of the site and reaching out to other fabulous females is an incredible gift. The blog has reminded me of how much I love writing and makes me want to pursue things I only dreamed about as far off possibilities.

I am thankful for the peace and serenity that I have acquired in knowing that I made the right decision for me and my life. I am grateful to my ex-husband for what he and our marriage taught me about myself, things I never examined or was too afraid to look at before. I am appreciate and hold dear our years together and what it taught me about love and the many lessons of life and living he showed me by example.

I am filled with gratitude for the simple pleasures of life that bring me such joy- and reveling in the fact that I now am able to surround myself with what truly brings me happiness. The quiet grace & beauty of nature ( like the above image from Yosemite), books, a cup of tea, a glass of wine, a relaxing night in with friends playing board games, Sunday family dinners, a sunny day driving in the car with great music- these are just a few of the small things that fuel  and sustain me. Such small pieces of life that for years I never noticed or overlooked, but I now see are integral for me to connect with my essential self.

I am thankful to be me, to be opinionated, strong willed, and to know how to trust my instincts again. Most of all this year, I am thankful to be living again, to be embracing life, and finding joy.

 

[Photo Credit: Valley View, Yosemite National Park. Photo by Cindy Costa, a remarkable photographer and aunt!]

 

 

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