Happy New Year! I truly hope you had a rejuvenating holiday break and are ready to tackle new challenges this year!! Okay, that's BS, especially if you work retail or a service industry. I've worked every holiday, birthdays, anniversaries, major football games (I'm an SEC girl, y'all understand), and for lots of folks, the holidays are the most stressful time of the year.
If that's you, or if you've just had a stressful year in general, I'd like to share my focus for 2017:
be still.
In my life, 2017 was filled with births, deaths, friends eloping, friends divorcing, and health challenges. All unexpected, and, with exception of the births and weddings, it all sucked. Personally, I had hip surgery at the beginning of the year so, while that was an enormous blessing, I'm still recovering. We also moved to our dream location, but that's such an unsettling experience.
With all that upheaval and change, I found myself asking, "WHY?!" so many times. I couldn't understand why I was doing the right thing, but the wrong things kept happening. I tried to force everything into my "perfect" ideal of how it should be, on my timetable.
Yeah, that's not how life works.
And, for the first time, I'm okay with that. I don't know exactly what shifted, but I finally understand that I'm not in control. As a Christian, I believe God is, but maybe you believe in something/someone else. I actually hope you do, because it's all too much to carry on our own.
And I certainly don't want to complain because when it comes down to it, I live a truly blissful life. Seriously. I am blessed beyond measure and, while I have worked very hard for everything I have, I still have more than I ever asked for or imagined.
So, as the one who usually has a long list of resolutions AND actionable steps to reach them, I have nothing. And frankly, it feels so, so good. I was at the point where my game plans were too complicated and were taking over my life. My focus this year is just to work hard, be kind, and be still. I believe everything will fall into place from there.
I'd love to hear your resolutions (or lack thereof!), so let's continue the conversation in the comments on Facebook under this post announcement. Next week I'll be back with makeup/skincare goodness, but I think it's important to concentrate on the inside stuff first. CHEERS to the new year and a new outlook!