The simple things

  Ahhhh, it's been so long! I am absolutely shocked that it is already September, and that we are only a couple months away from Christmas again! My mom used to always tell me that time would speed up as I grew older. She was 100% right.
  2012 has not been my favorite year, but that is for me and my closest people to hear about. ;-) One thing I can say I have learned in the last 9 months though, is simplicity. I am in the midst of a fabulous book that I plan on blogging all about as I get more in depth, so I won't reveal it yet. I am learning things about myself and the woman I strive to be while studying this book... and I really like her! (The woman I'm becoming, that is). I'm finding myself more aware of the true fact that the important things are not "things", having 600+ friends on Facebook does not add substance to my life, and truly trying to live a life of simplicity, a life that God has intended for us long before social media had been thought of, is truly, truly invigorating. (And energized people usually live longer and happier lives!)
   2012 has been full of blessings in the same retrospect. My grandma had her 2nd PET scan today since she was diagnosed as cancer free. Every 3 months she has to get these done to see if the bad stuff has somehow crept back into her body. Every 3 months our family is on edge and full of anxiety. And today she was once again diagnosed with no evidence of disease! So she is off to Switzerland, France & England next week... and I am filled with excitement (and maybe a little envy...;-) .

Here she is gardening and trust me that thing was heavy:

  Hmmm, what else do I feel like touching on tonight? I really am excited to talk about the new book I'm studying. It has changed my way of thinking tremendously in the last few weeks that I've been reading it. We live in a world where everyone is living vicariously through everyone else. I'm absolutely guilty of it too, and I'm not even necessarily sure it's a negative thing. It becomes a downfall I think, when we start to judge and become jealous because we don't have those "things" or we don't "look like that in that dress", or we can't afford to take that trip or buy that house, or the artificial comments of how much you miss this person, but really do you even know this person, you only met once! No one truly talks anymore, instead Facebook has been used to leave insincere comments to people you could never pick up the phone to call. It's especially used as a place to post about what we "have" or the newest item we just purchased. I have literally scrolled down my friends list as I've seen ridiculous statuses and deleted person after person. I may sound dumb, but by not having the materialistic annoyances and the flashes of everyone trying to out-do each other, wow it has made my "news feed" much more enjoyable. And it really does narrow my life down to just keeping in touch and sharing my life with people that I truly do enjoy spending time with. Anyway, that might be enough for now. I'm drinking a Stella and ordered chinese food in tonight. Couldn't be happier in my 500 square foot apartment. "It's the simple things..." And it really is. :-)