So it’s been a whole 365 days since I entered my thirties and my what a transition its been! This year has been.. (for lack of a better word) traumatic!  I was in not one, but TWO car accidents! My mom and dad both battled some health issues. I battled ( and am still battling) a little bit of a health issue. I saw some  long friendships disintegrate and had my faith in the goodness of people tested. Needless to say, its been rough.

But you know what else I discovered this year? Through all the curve balls life threw my way  this,  I’M STILL HERE!  Travis Greene has a song called “Still Here ”  and one of the lyrics in the chorus says, “If the devil could kill me, he would have done it by now”. Well ain’t that the truth! I’m still here and it’s for a reason! After every storm, the sun must shine again 🙂 and with my storms I also had lots of sunny moments!

Last month, I went on a trip to Cuba( again lol)

I went with the intention to sit on my butt beach side or poolside and do absolutely nothing! But when I got there, we all ( I went with a large group of friends) decided we were going to do some excursions. One of these excursions, included an opportunity to do some snorkeling. Now, if you know me, me and deep water don’t mix at all- its a real fear( I can swim quite fine, just deep water and me don’t really mix ). Now once before when I was in Turks and Caicos, I attempted to go snorkeling…. but I never made it past the shore…. I chickened out! This time in Cuba, I was literally so close to backing out again (like literally telling my girl Naomi “I’m not going out there,I’m going back to shore 😛 ) , when I heard a voice in my head saying, “Just go, just do it!” So… I did and it was the most exhilarating experience of my life! I also did horseback riding, swimming in a dark cave and held an alligator… all on the same day! I think I kicked fears butt that day!! 🙂

Those experiences taught me a life lesson that I will carry with me into year 31: to live life to its fullest. To not let fear rob you of experiences! To live each moment with the essence of gratefulness and an air of grace.

Grace… man grace has been my life’s theme this past year and it certainly seems that it’s going to continue throughout this year. 

This year I’m going love a little harder….
I’m going to chase down more fears and conquer them one at a time…
I’m going to continually walk in grace…

And when all else fails… I’m gonna love them anyway!

So cheers to another year of life! I can’t wait to see what God has in store me!

My favorite scripture is 2 Timothy 1:7 and it reads, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Power
Love
Sound mind….

Year 31…

xoxo