When midnight struck on New Year’s Eve I couldn’t wait to kick 2017 to the curb and plant a big, wet one on the lips of 2018.
2017 was one of the crappiest years I’ve ever had. And believe me, I’ve had some crappy years! The past twelve months was just one continuous bad luck spell. I didn’t realize until New Years Eve started approaching that a lot of my Facebook friends were posting comments on how glad they were to see this year end. Apparently, we all had a crappy year.
Hubby swears that odd years are not good to us. We do better during even number years. I tend to agree with him. Then I opened our “Good jar.”
About two years ago, I saw this picture on Facebook. It was a picture of a jar and some advice. It said: On January first, start the year with an empty jar. Every time something good happens to you, write it down and place the piece of paper in the jar. On the last day of the year, empty the jar and see how many gifts life has given you.
So, I did. Every time something good happened to me, hubby or one of our kids, I wrote it down and put it in the jar. On New Years Day, I opened the jar and read them out loud at our family supper. Some of them we forgot about, some we still talked about, but one thing was certain; 2017 wasn’t that crappy after all!
As it turns out, 2017 was actually a great year!
Our grandson turned one and our granddaughter turned four. We went to Alberta for Easter and spent a week spoiling them rotten. We have been blessed with the most amazing daughter-in-law who happens to be the world’s greatest mother and our son has a fantastic job at a company he loves.
By the end of 2017, I helped nineteen teens finish the Duke of Edinburgh program. Including my own son and daughter who achieved their Gold!
My son finished his Business Degree at Memorial University and won two major scholarships for entrepreneurship. He started his own E-sports company is doing great.
My daughter, who is an Air Cadet, was given a staff position at CFB Gagetown teaching the Air Rifle Marksmanship Instructor course where she won the Top Shot on the C7 range for staff cadets in her platoon and Top Staff for her platoon during one week of the course. She also received the Top Drill award, a Bronze medal at the provincial drill competition and a gold medal for biathlon. Then she was promoted to Warrant Officer 2.
I was awarded the C.L.B.’s Governor and Commandants Medallion in recognition for my volunteer support of the CLB and their programs throughout the years.
We did some great travel. My daughter and I went to New York to see some Broadway shows including We Come From Away, which was awesome! My son, went to conferences in Toronto, Halifax and Montreal. Hubby and I went to Florida and I visited Ernest Hemingway’s house and petted several of his six-toed cats. Hubby drove a race car at the Daytona Race Track. He was like a kid on Christmas day.
The last two notes in the jar were: Celebrated 23 years of marriage and thankful for this amazing family.
So, what the hell was I complaining about? Obviously, I got caught up in what’s going on around me and I forgot to look at the big picture. I tend to focus on the negative things happening in my life and not pay enough attention to the positive.
As it turns out, while I was whining about the inconveniences that happened to me over the past year, I wasn’t paying attention to some of the really great stuff.
I realized that in 2017: we kept our marriage strong, out kids achieved great things, although I have some significant health issues, I am not dying of cancer, my kids are healthy, we have a great group of friends, there’s a roof over our heads, heat in the house, and food in the cupboard.
Apparently, the only thing that sucked in 2017 was my attitude. My New Year’s resolution is to change it and focus on the positive things going on in our lives and stop worrying about things that never seem to happen anyway. How was your year?
Happy New Years!