Word for 2012: Full

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion into clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

When I look back over the last year and try to think of a word to encompass it all, there was only one that seemed fitting.  Full.  My life is full.

Full of weddings (in Vegas and Oklahoma and Dallas and Oklahoma again) and cards on my birthday and hour-long phone conversations with good friends.

Of Facebook chats and chest bumps and tackling practice and flowers from my favorite people.

Full of engagement parties and engagement schemes and the birth of my goddaughter.

Of football games and meeting Coach Sutton and kids I used to babysit being in college.

Full of seeing a green river and dancing in an Irish pub.  Full of jumping off of a ledge in a jungle and parasailing over the ocean.

Of books I read and letters to Mr. Right (wherever he may be) I wrote and making memories with my family.

Full of Fiesta Bowl wins and rushing the field and laughing until my stomach hurt.

And, most importantly, full of all of the amazing people who I have experienced these things with.

It's easy to think about the things we don't have yet.....the things that we are still working for or dreaming about.  But this year taught me to focus, instead, on all of the amazing things that I have been given.  My life is full.  I am blessed.  Period.  End of story.

Here's to enjoying and appreciating the fullness we have in 2013!

Happy New Year!