The year in lessons

While this past year was rough in so many ways, I grew in so many more ways and learned a lot of grown-up lessons. Among these lessons were the following:
1. Big girls do cry sometimes. I cried a lot this year, this may have been one of the teariest years of my life lol. I went through a mini personal crisis which I explained in one of my posts as a reason that I stopped posting for awhile, and it turned out that it just helped me grow. I dealt with my mommy leaving me to be with my sister; I took over the house, and as a result I appreciate my mom so much more and realize that mothers that are like her are just plain awesome. Sadly, the year ended with me losing a friend of mine (and it wasn't a death,) so that was another bucket of tears. If God really does keep all the tears we cry, I suppose heaven is a swimming pool right now!
2. It's possible to "be the bigger person" almost all the time. I tried this, it wasn't easy, and I must say it's even quite painful a lot of the time. When you take the high road, you're sometimes alone :-/ As Anne of Green Gables said "If you only knew how many things I wanted to say and didn't."
3. You can accept yourself and still make everyone else happy-sorta. This year I've looked at myself and said "I need to lose weight" many times, but I think that's part of being a female. I've also said to myself "God made you, He made you with big hips, curly hair, and obvious skin problems and He said 'This is a good one!' and I can too!" In an attempt to make everyone happy I wore my hair curly all summer (to make myself happy,) and I'm planning to wear it all straight (mostly) for the winter for those who keep telling me to. I think that this year I heard more negative about my looks than ever, but I've also heard a lot positive--so I think everyone is just being more vocal in general.
4. Friends are blessings sent from above-just make sure they're friends. This year I made new friends. One of them was Taylor-my fellow crafty girl, and the one who introduced me to my latest love (sushi). I've also bonded with several bloggers (in a bloggy kinda way) and many of my fellow CAST team members on Etsy. I grew closer to some friends, and even rebuilt relationships with one or two. The most painful was letting go of someone close. You have to realize, I'm a collector (it's technically called input) and basically what this means is that for fear of needing something later, I instead keep it even if it's harming me (ex: taking up space, making me cry more than laugh, or generally being useless.) When you lose one of your "closest" friends, you feel vulnerable and like you can't trust yourself, but it's only for the best. When you are always needed, and you're never allowed to need, you know it's time to let go...
5. God is in control. I have struggled so much this year with letting go of control! Through it all God has been faithful. For those that aren't believers, this may seem ridiculous, but every time I felt things spiraling out of control I could reach out and embrace the knowledge that God was holding me up every time; I was stressing out thinking I was falling, but he was saying "I got ya baby girl!"

I am not ready  bracing for this coming year knowing that I have the tools I need to get through it successfully, and I hope you do too. In closing check out this cool blog...It was just what I needed, and it's way shorter than mine too :-) Just imagine! We were God's bright idea!

Happy YEAR People!

Elisabeth Arona