This time of year is for thinking . . .

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” —M. Scott Peck

Of course at this time of year - I think we all think back about the past year - and reflect about what we want to change about the new year. At my age I've made many a lists of resolutions - I don't do them like that anymore mainly because it doesn't really work for me.

I have tons of things I want to change about myself - but I don't make a list. I just made myself a promise of sorts a few years back. To keep growing at all costs.

My main problem in life has been letting go. Letting go of what I think I so desperately needed and just let go and see what God and life has in store for me.

Here is a poem that has changed my life:

LETTING GO TAKES LOVE
To let go does not mean to stop caring,
it means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
it's the realization I can't control another.
To let go is not to enable,
but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means
the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another,
it's to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for,
but to care about.
To let go is not to fix,
but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective,
it's to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny,
but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more
and To let go and to let God, is to find peace !
Remember: The time to love is short
------ author unknown

For me is just wasn't reading the poem - it was doing what the poem said. And it doesn't happen over night - it took me years and I find I still have to work on letting go almost daily.

That is my biggest issue - wanting things to be different, wanting people to change, wanting things I can't have sometimes. So this is my continuous life lesson. Maybe you don't have the same one I have, but it is a good poem and thought I'd share it.

Now it is not as bleak as it may sound. I find when I let go - I open up my life to other things - and sometimes it's even better then I had ever dreamed of. Sometimes not. But it is what it is.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Happy Birthday David Archuleta - From Wikipedia

Archuleta was born in Miami, Florida, to Jeff Archuleta and Lupe Marie, a salsa singer and dancer. He speaks Spanish.[11] Archuleta's mother is from Honduras, while his father is of Spanish, Danish, Irish, German, Iroquois, and Mexican descent.[12][not in citation given] Archuleta has four siblings.[13] Archuleta's family moved to the Salt Lake Valley, to the city of Sandy, Utah, when Archuleta was six. He currently lives in Murray, Utah where he attended Murray High School.[14] Archuleta is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America.[15][16][17]

Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. "That musical is what started all of this", he said.[18] He started performing publicly at age ten when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation and won the Child Division.[19]

Love,

Chatty