2017 - Time for Revival

The New Year, 2017, has begun with a bang.  One of the things this year offers is the chance for revival. 

It is time to revive passions, interests and dreams.  It is time to reinvigorate creative desires and abilities.  It is time to restore a passion for living, whether I am choosing to live day to day, week to week or month to month. It is time to resurrect saved manuals, books and articles full of guidance and advice.  It is time to re-establish daily rituals/routines so life can move along smoother.  It is time to put back into place boundaries in relationships, work, time management and expectations, of self and others.  It is time to energize promises I want to keep. 

Among the things to restore is this space.  I began sharing after I had seen others I respected and admired reaching out via the internet to share their lives.    Just when I could (or should) have been sharing more about the challenges of parenting following the addition of two children to our home, priorities got jumbled due to the increased demands of working with social workers and agencies, supporting the parents, the legalities and process of adoption, working to support a larger family and caring for two very active demanding toddlers and a teenager faced with all the decisions, challenges and growth of attending high school.    What spare time I did find I used to post a few thoughts on another blog, “Bridge of Skills” or promote my book by the same name. 

The beginning of a new year fell right behind moving from one home and city to another.  Among the comments I have heard from people in our former area and people I am meeting in our new living area is that they wish they knew me better, and as they learn more about me, the question of whether I have ever considered sharing my experiences and inspiration with others.  The answer is yes, I have, and it is time to do it again.   

So, for those who have known me before, and allowed me to share with you in the past, I ask you to forgive my absence and hope you will again look forward to reading the thoughts of someone who is just like you.  For those who are new, I hope you will feel love, encouragement and value as we journey through life together.   

Time Passes Too Fast

Is it just my age or is time moving swifter than it used to?  I could swear it had only been a few months since I posted.  Now I look and and realize it has been more than 1/2 a year.

 I had such good intentions, and then life changed.  My Sunday writing time became replaced by weekly drives and visits with my grandson.  Evening writing time got lost due to having to work later to make up for time off for therapy, courts and other family obligations that interfere with a regular 8 to 5 schedule.   My relax after work time has become computer game time, and preparing a late dinner for the family, and scripture study with our new home teacher and his wife. (A story in itself.) 

I don't know how it is in your life but Time Passes Too Fast for me.  I am sure it was just yesterday that my granddaughter told me she was expecting, and yet today it is just a few months away and I am pushing her to get her room ready so we can move the baby furniture in.   I thought it was just yesterday that I finished the latest Jelisa story, and when I look it is saved three months ago, but I don't know where the time flew to.   I thought it has only been a few days not a full 2 weeks since I last wrote in my journal, but the dates when I open up the book tell me otherwise.  I was positive it was just yesterday that I was thinking of new ways I could show my value at work and keep my current job...Oh, thank goodness, finally one that really was just yesterday.

One day blurs into another lately.  I flow from one thing to another, just getting this done or that done, and finally reaching the end of the day.  I wake up the next morning, mentally list and review all the things I want or need to get done, and then begin, complete a few here and there, do what I have to, be pleasant and kind, and finally fall into bed, numb my mind with something from the computer, and fall asleep. Before I realize it days and weeks have passed without my marking them off or even making a note of them.  They were here and gone while I breathed my way through them.
So what happened to all those lost days?  Have they truly been lost?  Did time pass too fast for me to use it wisely?  No!  I used those days to increase my testimony and note it in a gratitude journal during sacrament meeting.  Those days contained moments of understanding, compassion, encouragement and listening that increased levels of trust, love and understanding in many relationships.  Sometime during the past few weeks as I watched time pass too fast I created 12 articles that a coworker read, was amazed by the ideas presented, and is impatiently waiting for me to put together the rest of the presentation so she can understand how all this "great stuff" fits together into a marketing plan.  Somewhere in those days I also gained a stronger testimony and a deeper belief in myself and in the possibility of receiving blessings that I feel have been just out of my reach, a someday wish that I have continued to hope for yet put off for the day when I have more time.  Perhaps now, while time passes too fast for me to note it's passing, those dreams are nearer than ever before.

Time does pass too fast for us to keep.  Yet when we capture a moment or two here or there through love, use of our talents or taking a step toward our future it has not passed in vain.  As time passes too fast we are offered a glimpse of a future where time is not noted and we live on doing the everyday things we do best..loving, creating and blessing others in our own unique ways.