Happy New Year!

While I refuse to make resolutions for the reason that they only set me up for failure I do voice these sentiments to all of you, my family which I’ve always professed encompasses friends and fellow bloggers as each of you along with your words and actions reside within me.

May you be blessed with richness in family and friends.
May you find wealth in ordinary opportunities.
May you find strength to overcome everyday obstacles and challenges,
and power in those that seem insurmountable.
May you find wisdom to triumph over situations that refute logic.
May you find understanding in circumstances that harbor resentment.
May you find tolerance and forgiveness within your heart
to prevail the deceit of others.
May you find honesty to look in the mirror at your shortcomings, and
May you look at others with patience, empathy and compassion, and
in each daily commonplace happening
May you be surrounded by joy, love and laughter.

Welcome 2011~



Tiny Treasures~

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines tiny as diminutive and a treasure to be any thing or person greatly valued or highly prized.

As I meandered along the beach welcoming the sunbeams and gathering shells on our latest retreat to Emerald Isle it occurred to me that my focus from past walks had been altered. I was no longer probing for the largest, most perfect shells I could find, but the smallest of treasures the sand and sea had to offer. Would this thought transcend into further parts of my life? While it is human nature to want the best and be the best, I’ve tried to avoid the temptation of comparing lives and wishing for what I don’t have especially since I am extremely blessed with a high-quality life.

So my mind went to the simplicities of my life; inventory of tiny treasures we often see as insignificant as we simply take them for granted until further observation only to realize those are the most significant of all. After being unemployed for four months the love of my life now has a job where he already feels validated. I have a healthy wonderful son who is kind, sensitive, loving, and smart; he is more than I ever could have imagined my son to be. I have friends synonymous with family that bless me with gifts of a smile, laughter and kind words. I am sanctified with freedoms to believe, think and act in a manner that corroborate my being. Not only do I recognize the beating of my heart as momentous, I am revered with health and well-being.

I was forced to stand back and take inventory as a result of tragedies and heart-break in the lives of people in my world: a friend who has a second bout with breast cancer, a 22 year old girl who babysat Nicholas was recently was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and today I learned of a friend who’s son died suddenly from complications from seizures. Then there is shoulder surgery, divorce, job loss, foreclosure, a knee replacement that act as reminders to me that life is fragile; life is short. I say a quick prayer of thanks and a reminder that life is filled with tiny treasures.