Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tuesday morning reflection...

Peter's Parent's arrive today...
Austin woke up with a nice cold front coming through to welcome them with the Holiday Spirit!

Walking this morning I could see the sun's rays splitting through the poofy cotton-balls that are up on the clear blue sky this morning. The 55 degrees that the thermometer reads feels like 50 with the nice cool breeze that rumbles through every 3 or 4 minutes. Today would be a beautiful day for a morning run. For now, it's a great day for a morning stroll. I thought about how smoothly this pregnancy has been going. Here I am 6 1/2 weeks from giving birth and I still don't feel too "handicapped" or "restricted".Yes my life has completely changed but for the most part everything has been kinda the same. I'm not running, but i'm walking and exercising. I able to do almost everything normal. Very few are the times that I've felt "sick" and by sick I mean nauseous or uneasy. My night sleep is sometimes interrupted by the freaquent visits to the bathroom, but I fall right to sleep once I get back to bed. My breathing is a little different and I feel my heart racing sometimes for no reason...but other than that, it's been smooth sailing.

It's nice to take time to take time to breathe in the fresh cool air. Life happens so fast. It feels as if a couple weeks ago I was taking hot, humid breaths in the early morning hours on the Panamanian countryside that I thought would be my home for the next two years. Little did I know I would have a lovely switch of plans that would place me in the beautiful city of Austin with Peter and I would get to celebrate Thanksgiving surrounded by family. Thanksgiving would have been spent with other Peace Corps volunteers at the IST (In-Service Training) probably eating rice, beans, and dried then fried steak(I'm sure it would have been great...but it would have been very different).

Life takes some crazy turns sometimes that we could never have even dreamed up. However, I would prefer that a millions times over than living a predictable life, boring life. When things are unplanned, they can be scary and frustrating but what is more scary and frustrating is living a life that you KNOW what will happen next at EVERY MOMENT.

People always wonder what the recipe for happiness is. I don't know for certain, but from the couple years that I've been alive, I've noticed that having things to look forward to (planned or unplanned) make all the difference.

Luckily for Peter and me, we're not much planners...we have short term and long term goals (some different, some the same), but when it comes to figure out exactly one path for us to reach them, we've realized that there is more than 1 option. We know that some of our decisions will make the path towards certain goals a little longer while making other paths shorter. The important thing is to stay attentive on our paths for any signs or inlets that may lead us closer to any of the many goals and dreams we have for our lives.

My Peace Corps agenda had a great quote on it:
"I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."-Oliver Wendell Holmes

What direction are you moving in?

1 comment:

  1. Very insightful for so early in the morning!

    I love our lovely turn of events, too!

    ReplyDelete

Quotes to Live by:

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Be kinder than necessary, everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

When you help someone up a hill, you get that much closer to the top yourself.