It’s taken me a while to post on this, not for any other reason than a need for some perspective. Fortunately, time helps provide for just such a thing.
I’d rather not be too cliche’, but if memory serves me correctly, I was 5 a few days ago. It’s amazing how quickly the moments and years pass by. 30 really hasn’t been that big of a deal, in terms of significance. I don’t feel much older, I don’t look much older, and since I am not what anyone would call “type-A” or “highly organized”, I don’t have a list of Things-I-Want-To-Accomplish-By-The-Time-I-Turn-30 to stare at and feel inadequate about.
I do have a list, though, of things I am grateful for, or am alive to appreciate, or simply find myself smiling about. I’ve included it below, some items with description, some without. Feel free to cheat off of my paper.
(in no particular order)
- Georgia Football, despite going 30 years without a National Title
- A river, a kayak, a cooler, and nothing else
- Christmas Trees, Kimi Farms, and fire barrells late at night
- A tremendous family
- A home I can work on, and on, and on, and on…
- Nintendo Wii
- My dogs
- Guinness Beer, Oktoberfest, and Fat Tire Ale
- Good wine, and if time and money permits, Great wine
- Summertime
- My Fiance’ (she’ll love that she was #11)
- Running in the rain, in the cold, and in the middle of the night
- Ipods, Itunes, and the de-cluttering of my music collection
- My faith, or my journey of faith, or simply that spark that keeps my quest ever-going
- My love of reading
- HD Television - Seriously, have you seen it? I almost ate an LCD panel during a Wendy’s commercial yesterday
- A job I love, even if it doesn’t really count as a job until something is published
- Two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere
- Flying - In an airplane. Although, if I ever wind up flying on my own, that’ll replace this immediately
And last but not least, my friends. My amazing and wonderful friends. I cannot imagine my walk through this world without them. They are the most genuine, caring, loving, honest, and passionate people I have ever come across, and I am thankful that I was able to latch onto them for as long as I have. The adventures we’ve shared, tears we’ve shed, and moments we’ve spent in fits of laughter, fear, anger, and passion, I will never be able to repay them for their impact on my life.
Stories abound, and I hope, one day, to tell them all. But having lived them and shared them with such wonderful people, it would be hard to say anything more fitting and anything less appropriate than ‘thanks, I love you all’. While barely scratching the surface, it is, at least, a start.
Tags: On the Weather // Add Comment »