36.....

36 things I know for sure...what I've learned or what I'm celebrating on my 36th birthday. In no particular order, I'm thinking about being 36.

1. I've been immeasurably blessed with family. I have wonderful parents, a wise and loving brother. I have a loving and capable husband with whom I share precious and charming children.


2. We are spiritual beings. I believe in this quote with my whole soul...

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

3. The physical experience is pretty important too, though. I believe in the value of healthy eating and active movement. 

4. I love my friends and I always seem to have perfect friends for the stage of life I'm experiencing.

5. I didn't want to be a working mom, but it is ok. My girls are happy and I thank God for Diana Woolls, our day-care provider, every day because she loves my kids and teaches them things I probably wouldn't have been able to had I stayed at home.

6. The sound of the coffee maker makes getting up just a little easier. Speaking of that, taking the covers off my body is almost always the hardest part of my day. Pretty easy life, right? Why do I complain?

7. Reading The Four Agreements changed my perspective on life, and I should reread it yearly:

1. Don't take anyting personal.

2. Be impeccable with your word.

3. Don't make assumptions

4. Always do your best

8. I love the Farmer's Market...there is a joy there in celebrating the harvest of people's hard work.  I'm sure there is a deep metaphor in the spirit of humanity we find when we are there to buy locally.

9. I LOVE crossfit.  Lifting heavy things, moving intensely and taking nutrition seriously fuels my mind, my soul and my body. 

10. My Dad sent me an email today saying this is the "busy time" of my life. I can't imaging doing this with any one other than BJ. We are a fabulous team.  

11. While I don't embrace very much of Christian theology, I love my church and believe raising my kids in church is really important, even though sometimes (often), it is a very big hassle.

12.  I love words.

13. I have wasted entirely too much time feeling insecure about my body. I really don't want to pass this along to my girls.

14. I will never be as wonderful as my Mother, but hopefully she will be around for a very long time, so my girls will get to experience the kind of pure goodness her spirit oozes.

15. I'm selfish, but I feel self-righteous about the fact that I can admit it.  Really, I'm a schmuck.  I care about my own sleep, my own schedule and get unreasonably upset when my house is messy. How can I live with myself when there is so much suffering in the world?!

16. I really can't stand being in relationships with competitive people. 

17. Running is a part of who I am. I hope I never get too old to pound the pavement and breathe deeply. 

18. My brother gives the best advice.

19.  Meeting Patch Adams changed my life. I wish I could have coffee with him once a year to redirect my desires for social justice and humanitarian principles.

20.  I was born to be a teacher, to be with kids.  I wish I was better at it.

21. I love a good story.

22. I knew I would love my children, but I enjoy how much I like them.  

23. I'm grateful I grew up in a small town.  

24. I believe in the Holy Spirit with every fiber of my being.  I'm not so sure about a personal relationship with Jesus or if prayers work, but I know that the Divine is in each of us and wants us to be connected to each other and to His (or Her) Spirit.

25. I would really not like to know if someone has something bad to say about me. You know how people say, "say something to my face." I feel exactly the opposite, "say it behind my back." I don't want my feelings to be hurt. I make the exception if it is something someone can say with love and kindness and bring to my attention something I need to see about myself.

26.  The saying "You Only Live Once" is scary to me. I hope I'm doing it right. 

27. I'm a horrible judge of character. I like just about everyone, but I'm happy that way. I would rather be disapointed a few times than miss out on all the goodness I find in people.

28. No church or school can replace the power of a strong family and good dinner conversations.  

29. I wish I was a morning person.  

30. I don't want my children to grow up but I look forward to knowing the people they will become.

31. It is an obscene waste of energy to compare ourselves with each other.   

32.  I wish that BJ's mother was still living but in her absence, I'm amazed at how much her friends have become our family. I hope I would do that for my friends.

33.  Life is to be lived and celebrated.

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Luke 12:27

34. I hope my brother and I outlive my parents and that my children outlive me. I can not imagine the pain of losing a child.

35. I miss my grandmother.  I not only loved her, I really liked her. I think Anna Cate & Molly inherited a bit of her charm.

36. I hope by the time I'm 37 I can say I live the 4 agreements more fully, that I have more let-go with less guilt and more examples of ways I've shared the bounty of love I've been given. In the meantime, I celebrate all that I've learned and loved.

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. 

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument. 

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” 
― Mary Oliver