Reflecting positively

What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

I appreciate this prompt question. This is a good time to look back over the year and pick out the good things.

Early in January I attended an event that was very fun and very positive. It had a running theme of : do not let what you are afraid others are thinking of you, have any influence in your life. In other words don’t give the opinions of others any attention.

It’s hard to believe that 2023 will melt into 2024 soon. I had some strong intentions for what I wanted to accomplish this year.

This sounds easy enough. It might be for some of us, but for me this year has been a running challenge on many things, this one definitely stood out.

I had set the goal early in the year, of finishing my book and luckily the intent of doing so, pulled me through everything else. Tonya Leigh suggested setting a goal so big that you had to evolve as a person to achieve it. I liked the concept of that, future Andie would approve. It was brilliant and I think maybe it worked.

I learned about regulation, at least the term, and I feel like that, in and of itself, was is a game changer for me.

Most of the positive events of this year have been small wonderful moments, often, one on one with my favorite people. Walks on the beach with great friends, being made over by my grand daughter, tea and toast with another grand daughter, playing at being basketball-fouled with the grands. Football with a bean bag, I think it was Oprah who coined the phrase ‘Cheerio moments’ from a show she did.

I watched while she interviewed a family in which the mother was taking her terminal diagnosis and doing many creative things to help her children through it. It was a tearful show, but powerful. The family traveled to several theme parks, and really made the most of their time together. At one point Oprah turned to the young daughter and asked what her favorite thing was. She told Oprah her favorite times from that year with her mom were in the middle of the night when her mom couldn’t sleep and they went down to the kitchen and ate bowls of Cheerios together.

It hit me, and a lot of people hard, that for all the travel and money spent, and amazing things they did together, the cheerios in the middle of the night meant the most to her daughter.

All the precious conversations I’ve had the privilege to be part of, are pure gold. I’m truly the most grateful for interactions with the people I love.

Those are my most positive events of this 2023 year. Hands down