12 Comments

  1. Sandy,
    As you know I showed up at your party as you were shutting it down so I am very thankful that you are back. I also appreciated that although you were not blogging you were not absent either. We can all learn from the things you learned in 2012 Sandy.
    “Transcend does not mean turning off my emotions……. Transcend means tapping into something higher than emotion. God has for me a spiritual sustenance where I am truly free to respond with complete self-control” So much wisdom here. We must all assume responsibility for our actions… we all have the ability to respond instead of react. We must choose our response and own it.
    I have learned even more clearly that expectations drive disappointment and if not dealt with can cause big problems. We all have expectations about our job, our relationships, and life in general. If we do not clarify and discuss expectations with those we love we usually end up hurting one another. We need to lay our expectations out and discuss them with our spouse, our children, our job, and with God.

    1. That is very true about expectations, Mark. I have learned a lot about them too. I learned that I held some expectations that were difficult for even ME to identify. It takes much soul-searching to discover the root of your disappointment. Some of our expectations are so second-nature that we may have a terrible time extracting them so we can clearly communicate them (or lay them down!).

  2. I can totally related to #2. I have really worked in the past several months to refocus my thoughts on the good part of whatever the situation is.

    I had a similar experience as #3 in 2012 also, when I started working from home. I totally eschewed all schedules and timetables, at least all that I reasonably could. I just didn’t function well. Now, I’m back to list making, but trying very hard not to put strict time tables on anything.

    Practicing those two things helped me have a much more relaxed and enjoyable holiday season this year. I must say, though, that I still really have to work at it. It is far from habit yet.
    Lori

    1. Lori, my major epiphany about NOT planning came to light during the holidays. I purposely planned nothing (or very little) so we could just see where the day took us. Turned out, I had a house full or whiny kids who wanted to know what we were going to DO today (insert whiny tone when you read that). And because I didn’t plan meals, my kids pretty much ate chips. And there were all kinds of wonderful, holiday-ish things we could have done with 2 weeks off school, but we didn’t because I didn’t plan anything. So, yeah…I’m back to making lists, too.

      1. Sandy,
        As something on the side I teach FranklinCovey’s time managment course. I do not do well unless I plan and I do so much better when I do. I think to purposely plan makes you ask good questions about how you are spending your time and is it where you want to be spending your time.

  3. Thanks for sharing your retrospective of 2012 and best wishes to you for the New Year!

    I totally agree with you about the ‘drip drip’ aspect of being online. All of those minutes checking Email, blogging and social networking can really add up!

    Many blessings to you and keep up the good work!

  4. Sandy,
    Happy New Year! Good riddance to 2012. It was not a good one for me either.
    So I can appreciate your point #2…but I must admit, I’m doing better about refocusing my thoughts.
    Cheers to 2013, may it be the best year ever.
    -donna

    1. Donna, I’m sorry you had a cruddy year. We will pray together that we learn what we are supposed to learn from it and move on to a much better, more joyful 2013!!

  5. Oh my dear friend. I’m just so sorry that last year wasn’t stellar for you because YOU are stellar. You shine so brightly in everything you do.

    As for your points, I totally relate to number 1. And number 2. And number 3. Thanks for saying all of that so much better than I could.

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