Better Late Than Never

Happy Belated New Year, everyone. I have sat down many times to write some type of meaningful, encouraging message. Everything I came up with has sounded like a devotional, a Dear Abby column or some kind of pledge that would be chanted during a Women Are Mighty Xena Warrior Princesses meeting. I have been scraping bottom for an original thought for two weeks now.

I really love reading my friends' blogs. People around me posted all this brilliant stuff and I began to question my own personal skill. I'm really not an original creative crafter, a masterpiece chef, a professional photographer, a motivational speaker or even a revolutionary decorator. I am comfortable, practical and totally not ashamed to try someone else's idea. Sometimes my blunt ramblings don't feel as witty or even as substantial as I hope they are.

In between blankly staring at the Blogger screen and writing up other projects, I have had other minor distractions besides writer's block, inferiority and figuring out if I am, indeed, a writer. I spilled my coffee on the carpet my husband so thoughtfully cleaned. My computer shut down and refused to cooperate by turning on. Going on strike, I think my laptop thought it found it's permanent resting place. Little did Acer know that it could be totally dismantled and brought back from computer Bermuda.

It was with great relief that while chatting with a very dear friend the other night, I remembered why I started my blog. For a couple of different reasons, my thirtieth birthday just wasn't what I thought would be like. I wasn't sure if that was a personal thing or related to circumstances. After review, I really feel it was a point of personal growth.That's why I named the blog A Week After Thirty. It was my place that I could just release myself. It was my productive way of unwinding all of the complicated thoughts and misconceptions I had about this new decade in my life. It was a place to mark growth and remember the funny things that make my day.

As revelers were counting down til the midnight hour that marks the New Year, I was also counting down. I was remembering the New Years' past. I was counting down to the end of a momentous year. I was counting down the minutes until I knew things would feel as though they really did "start over". At any birthday or New Year, I think it is totally normal to look at oneself and expect ourselves to be further than where we are. I remember a couple very wonderful times that I actually felt as though I had succeeded as those minutes were marked. Both were based upon arrival at goals and measured by what most people consider success: a home, a family, bills paid off, money in savings, a new business or job.

However, after discussing this with my friend, I realized that my heart has shifted in recognizing success. A person's success cannot be measured by judging oneself by the performance of other people or their acquisition of things. It comes from being your own individual. It comes by looking at your next year as a blank canvass to be painted with your experience. It comes by appreciating the simple things that have been placed before you and finding joy in what you have instead of what you don't. It comes from recognizing mistakes and learning enough from them to change your course of action. Not everyone's journey through life is the same.

Sharing that journey is one of the most important parts. It encourages others to hope and to succeed. So thank you, for reading, commenting and supporting me as I write about mine here! I hope that it brings an element of normal to your thoughts, to your days and to your experiences. May the coffee stay in the cup, the computer remain functioning, and well, the princess thing... yeah, do with it what you will.