2018: Sighs and Heart Eyes

I feel like there are about 27 cliches running through my mind right now... so let me spare you and get right down to it.

In November, a dear friend from my ward sent me the cutest card in the mail. You should have seen me when I opened it. My joy. It was so full. Her words were thoughtful, kind, and uplifting. Not only did it make an impact on me that day, but it made an impact on my entire December because guess whaaaaat....

My goal for this month was to snail-mail a handwritten card to someone each day. I love writing cards, so this goal wasn't so much to stretch me as it was to be consciously grateful for people in my life and to express that gratitude to them in a meaningful way. A couple unexpected things came out of it for me:

1. There are so many people in my life to write to! One card a day really doesn't suffice for all the goodness in my life. That was eye-opening.

2. I ended up writing the card each night as I was getting ready for bed. I would highly recommend this practice to anyone. Spending a few minutes at the end of the day thinking about someone you love and writing to them does some serious good for the soul. It's like a gratitude journal on steroids because you're putting that gratitude into a little bit of service for someone else. And then you hop into bed and you feel awesome.

And just like that 2018 is over.  It was legitimately one of the best years I have had in a long time. Here are some highlights (excluding the monthly goals you've already read about):

- Best book I read: Same Kind of Different as Me. You probably already know that because I've probably already told you about it or given it to you for your birthday.

- Prettiest site I saw: Bike ride through the Cotswolds in England. But Bryce Canyon was a close second or maybe even a tie for first.

- Most delicious food I ate: Pretty much everything I ate at Isabella Station in Sylvester, Georgia (including steak and salmon and a fried chimichanga AND fried cheesecake, and etc., and etc.)

- Hardest I laughed: Probably when we were in the airport in Hawaii and the attendant said over the intercom, "If you have Sky Priority under your seat assignment then you can board." My grandma jumped up and started frantically looking under all the seats and telling us to look under our seats to see if we got the sky priority. It would have been just average hilarious except that my mom started laughing so hard she couldn't breathe and then my brother started laughing really hard and then I started laughing really hard. And there we all were laughing that silent, can't-breathe laugh as my grandma continued the desperate search all by herself, hoping to win the prize. When we told her what he actually meant, she said, "Well, I've been to a lot of parties with games like that!"  If only airports were like parties with prizes.

- Most recent tears shed: When Benjamin got a girlfriend. Yes, I'm that sister.

- Favorite movie: Oh I just don't know. But I realllllllly loved Coco that first time I saw it. All those Mexicanisms I just could not resist.

- Number of weddings attended: 2 (perhaps an all time low? perhaps because I'm old so now I'm attending an all time high number of baby showers instead?)

- Number of bug bites received: 1,453

I think that covers the essentials. Let me end with this: Remember that article I shared last month from Elder Holland? It was called "Making Your Life a Soul-Stirring Journey of Personal Growth." He says our souls were created to grow, and he talks about learning and becoming, repentance and conversion, and change. I've been thinking about the title all month. I even wrote it on a sticky note for my desk at work.

Making my life a soul-stirring journey of personal growth.

That's what I want to do. And I think that's what I've been doing; I think that's why 2018 has been so stellar. I took initiative, set goals, made plans, tried new things, shared insights, prayed, made new friends, gave second chances, failed, turned, learned, lost opportunities, took opportunities, succeeded. All of it.

It was a soul-stirring year of personal growth.

Here's to another one in 2019.