Why I'm So Glad It's Now and Not Then (Thankful Thursday)



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 This time last year I was a hot mess.  It was my last (and hardest) semester before graduation, I was planning my wedding, searching for a new house, and the holidays were looming: not exactly a time in life I look back on with much fondness.  To be honest with you, I do NOT handle stress well - if my plate gets too full, I just want to (and sometimes DO) curl up in a ball and scream and cry and pretend like I have no responsibilities and no pressures and no deadlines.  I really try to minimize stress in my life, because I'm just not cut out to handle it well.  Stress starts to take a toll on your body in sometimes very unexpected ways - for example, this time last year, as stress for me was at it's peak, I had a horrible, disgusting, unbearably itchy rash all over my hands and part of my arms.  I kid you not, y'all, I looked like a leper whose rotting flesh might fall off at any given moment.  (You're welcome for that visual)

It was awesome.  I even had the rash on my wedding day.  Even awesomer.  

But that was just a season.  A tiny little blip on the radar of my life, which has now passed over and on to better things.  All through college, I never really got to enjoy the holidays. I SO wanted to - I wanted to do the holiday baking and really enjoy the decorating, and I wanted to send out Christmas cards and get all my shopping done BEFORE the week before Christmas, but alas: that was NEVER the case.  I was too busy being a giant freaked out stress ball to EVER really enjoy the holiday season. 

And this year, I am just so utterly grateful that, for the first time in 5 years, I am truly able to be QUIET inside and meditate on the beauty that is to come - to find true peace and joy in this season, to really ENJOY decking the halls and baking the goodies and shopping for gifts for my loved ones. 

So that is what I'm thankful for - I'm thankful for the seasons of our lives, just like the seasons of this Earth.  Because there would be no brisk and lovely autumn days without long and sweltering summer ones... no sunny, breezy spring without a cold and dreary winter. 

If you're in a sad or lonely or hard season of your life, remember that it is just a season, and "this too shall pass."  As human beings, our lives are not stagnant; they are not static - we are dynamic, moving, changing individuals, and where you are now will not be where you are in six months or a year or five years.  Be thankful for that fact.... I know I am. 



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 And just on a side note, I want to thank YOU - the wonderful people who read this blog.  You really and truly have no idea how much I adore all your funny, sweet, and encouraging comments, and how thankful I am just for the TIME it takes you to read what I have to say.  That means so, so much to me.  I really do my best to visit those of you who have blogs when I can, and it has been so fun getting to know you.  I really and truly hope each one of my readers and friends has an amazing Thanksgiving week, and I can't wait to hear all about it!

This weekend I have friends staying over whom I haven't seen in almost a decade, and I also have a wedding to attend... so things might be a little quiet around here for the next few days, but be sure and come back Monday when I'll be debuting my brand spankin cute new blog design!!! Yippeeeee!

Have a wonderful, beautiful Thursday...

J