Last Night I Had a Dream

 

Last night I had a dream. A dream about my blog and about having all of my music and books in one place. I created a blog like that in the past, so I thought maybe I should just update that one. It turns out that I have not had access to that blog since 2014. Which also means my posts stopped at that point after I wrote for about 7 years. 

I am not sure what the purpose of the dream is, or why I am creating this blog again, but, that is what I decided to do. I copied the main pages from my other blog and updated them to the most current information, and decided that I would start writing again. 

It was nice to be able to send my children a blog from 2008 to read and have them reflect on our lives and where things were focused then. 

It is a new year. I am grateful to have completed another year on this planet, and to have awoken today. I have got another day to experience life, count my blessings, and learn and grow. A few days ago I saw a post on Facebook that had the suggestion that for the new year we have a jar that we put all the good things that happen to us in, written on pieces of paper. When the new year comes to an end on New Year's Eve, we read all that happened that year. I thought that it was a fabulous idea, and that is what I am going to do this year. 

Last year my word for the year was Gratitude, and the year before that my word was Joy. I haven't chosen a word for this year yet, but I am thinking that it will be something along the lines of "Remember". Remember the good that has happened, remember those important people in my life, and remember to continue to build a relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

This year, I want to do better at studying the New Testament. I want to take time daily to read through the lessons and the chapters, and really ponder them. I also want to keep moving forward with my weight loss. 

I lost 52 lbs. last year. During the holidays I thought that I would take a break and just enjoy the time with family and not stress so much about my weight. That scared me a little to be honest, because that meant I could go backwards. I was worried that I would gain all the weight back. However, I determined to just give myself a break and do it anyway.

The other day I heard a video post on Facebook where a woman talked about repeating patterns, and when you see a pattern repeating, that it doesn't mean that you are failing, it means that pattern is getting ready to go. I thought about my weight loss patterns and how I usually do feel like a failure and lose and then gain over and over. This time, though, I thought about what she said. When I saw my old blog today, it had a post about losing 50 lbs. I had done that before. And I regained it and then some. Then, I lost 52 lbs, and I have regained about 13 lbs. of that. Thinking about it through the lens of that pattern knows that it is going to get broken, helped me feel the success of what I am doing rather than the failure, and I really think that is the key. I plan to celebrate my successes this year. And we will all see if that was the key to me making more progress than I ever have. 

Successes that I had last year was I reversed my A1C from 7.3 to 5.4. I reversed my diabetes so that I am not considered diabetic, and I want to keep that up. My goals are not about fitting into a certain dress size or looking a certain way, they are about health and living. I want to live the best life I can in the best health that I can have. I have taken a very gentle approach to these goals this last year, and I am proud of myself and what I have accomplished. That doesn't mean I don't still have those down moments, with negative thoughts, I do. But, I think that I am getting better at ignoring them. 

If you find my blog, I hope that it is a help to you in some way. I really love being able to help others through my life experiences. I hope that you will check out the other pages at the top of the blog and enjoy my music and books. I have created these things with the hope that it will help others. 

I have been asked lately when I will release my third book in the "Mending Angel's Wings" series, and the answer is that I do not know. Right now, I have really enjoyed not looking at the past, and living in the present. I know that I need to finish writing those stories, and I am sure at some time I still will, but right now just doesn't feel like the time to look back and pull that content from my life and write. I do know that the next book will be called "Mending Angel's Wings, the Healing Place." It will focus on events that came after the last book ended in my life, but it will also start to share the ways that I have found healing. I hope that it will help others find healing too. 

Writing these books has helped me see that life will always have ups and downs, there will always be days of happiness and sadness, but healing can happen a long the way. And we grow in strength and endurance as we continue to go through our own journeys in life. 

I hope that this new year brings you a lot of positive experiences, blessings, and accomplishments that matter to you. Those small things that really are the big things. I hope to write more regularly than I have for the last 9 years to a public audience. And I look forward to getting to know each of you through those things that you share with me.

Happy New Year!

P.S. My Old Blog, For Those Interested, Can Be Found Here.