Last year we had “just moved in”.  We were painting, and unpacking and settling in.  We were scared.

Scared that it all wouldn’t work out here.

Scared that we would make some fatal errors in judgement over the coming months

Scared that we wouldn’t make friends, or that the kids wouldn’t be happy.

With that fear came the excitement of the unknown.  An empty plate ahead of us with hundreds of choices. We had money in the bank ( a big chunk, an easy breathing chunk)

This year we sit here, in the same house, another school year, with decisions made and paths chosen. Our options are more limited (as is our bank account) and it gets me thinking about our path from the last year.

The choices we made, the roots we dropped and the lifestyle we created.

I look back on the decisions we made and have no regrets.  Life isn’t ever an easy walk, but ours sure has enough of a mix of laughter, hard work and love to make it good.

We came through the year more confident and sure of our path.  Our kids are happier and even though we still carry a level of stress in our bones, compared to where we were… where we are now is light years away from the year before, and the year before that. .

And sometimes we forget this. Sometimes we forget that instead of lounging in the meadow picking apples with chicken at our feet we used to be battling the chaos of living in the city.

Sometimes we forget that even tho we “make less” we are spending less as well… which means that we are actually a few pennies ahead of where we were.

We forget how little time we had together, we forget the stress of “fall approaching”, we forget the lines ups at the grocery store/gas station/rec centre.

We forget these things because we are fully here now.

This is our life . . . and we are fully living it now.

And it is better.  It is a better place than last year, and the years before that.

At some point we made a conscious decision to make our life better every year.  To resolve the things that caused us stress, and anxiety and frustration.  To get rid of the “good enough” days and make them all great.

And that makes me wonder about you.  Is the place you are in today better than last year? Are your days improving, or getting worse?  Are you also tackling the bad bits?

Because life is there for us to mold and build and change and create.  Our days are open for us to decide what belongs and what doesn’t.

And trust me. . . no one is going to do it for you. There is no magical escape.  It is a get dirty, face your fears kind of experience.

But.

If you could stand here next year, and look back, what kind of life would you want to be living? How can you decided today how to be happier tomorrow?

September always feels more like a “start” to me than January.  It is a place to begin. . .  It is a time to ask yourself “how can I make my life better?”

and the future is wide open for us to continue to make changes, and grow roots and build the next level on the foundation of our life.

Now, go.  get started. now . . . it is time to start a new chapter.

Okay… here’s the thing.  I am in a little blogger contest-thingy.  if you like me, can you press this button (the pink one) and share a vote with me?  It is a daily vote, so you can vote again, and again… and (yes, I’m sorry) again!
Mwah.