SISTER WISDOM : build a better life

It's my 28th birthday today.

I am thankful for my life today,

for the opportunity I have each morning to be alive, to be whole, to be free, and to be with the people I love. Each day is rich and full.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. I live with dreams and ideas and a reality full of wonder. I still believe in God, in goodness, in love, in absolutes - not because I always want to, but because it makes sense. I still believe fairies live in my flower garden - not because it makes sense, but because I want to.

I am thankful for new starts,

for fresh starts, reset buttons, and time-outs for grown-ups. I am thankful for the ability to feel, even when that means feeling pain. I am thankful for the freedom to say no, to live simple, to create my own enjoyment in life, to ignore negative people and to focus on all things bright and beautiful.

I am thankful for long walks, long naps, long conversations, and all of them being constantly interrupted by my children, because that means that they are whole, safe, happy, and with me.

I love this crazy hectic rushing pausing living breathing dancing feeling falling seeing hearing loving being doing running resting thing we have, this life, these moments strung together, these fly-by days, these vanishing hours.

I love the promise of eternity,

the hope spreading before me, the future opening up for me, limitless in scope.

I choose to dwell in possibility. I choose joy. I claim every wonder as a personal gift to me from the Maker. I relish the taste of each day I am given, I look toward the sun, I accept the clouds and the rain, I believe in redemption.

Everywhere I look I see the possibility of joy.

This year I am letting fly, loosing the things less-than-best. This year I am ignoring details to focus on one important thing at a time. This year I give myself the gift of order and discipline, which comes with a free trial pack of guilt-free, worry-free time-off-for-rest-and-renewal.

This year I will cancel my subscription to Worry Magazine, decline the offers for 1/2 off on "Comparing Yourself to Others: the Series" and will spend the time I save on the better classics:

• Guilt-Free Living
• Time with Family
• Prayer
• Fulfilling Work

This year my word is joy.

This year I will give more time to books and less time to the Internet. I will memorize poetry and ignore the news. I will sing songs instead of whining. I will go on dates with my husband, teach my daughter her letters, and cuddle my swiftly growing sons.

I will play in the dirt, climb trees, forget my weight, give more gifts, and accept the gifts I am given with a heart of gratitude and a life of grace.

I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--

Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--

Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise--

{Emily Dickinson}