2014: react well.

Is it too late to write about 2013?  Oops.

It has really been a great year.  (you can read the 2013 newsletter we sent to our friends and family here).  And I think I'm late to this post because I'm trying to hold onto it for as long as possible.  Not to be a cliché or anything, but we are (hashtag) so blessed.  Every once in a while I just sit down, look around our home and think of all we've done and all we have and I can't help but think that we probably have it the best of anyone else in our same situation.  I feel lucky every day.

And just as it is at the beginning of everything, 2014 starts with its own share of uncertainty.  I know very well that my life tends to be cyclical, going around from being really super-awesome-great all the time, to being just plain tough.  And after things are super-awesome-great for a long time, I'm usually wondering when that other shoe is going to drop.  Not in a pessimistic way, but more in a way to be very aware of the super-awesome-great, and to keep it in my mind if/when that other shoe does indeed drop.  I have no idea what 2014 will bring.  I know what I hope will happen, and I know what I hope won't happen.  And I know I get to choose how to react to any of those things.  I mean to react to them with gratitude, humility, and/or patience.  This is the most important of all my resolutions: react well.

For me, 2014 starts with the highest of hopes and an impressive reserve of happiness (courtesy of 2013) pushing all of my optimism forward towards those hopes.  Let's press on, shall we?