Hello friends, Happy New Year!!!
2012 has snuck up on us.!! The new year always seems so eager- doesn't it? Like it's a pushy little kid in the lunch line bumping his way to the front before the cafeteria is even open.
As I look back on a wonderful but blurry 2011 I am amazed by how truly fast life passes us by.
At the close of this past year I planned to do Christmas cards, a blog post for every holiday, return all my phone calls and emails, finish up my website, and start taking pilates again but have somehow managed to not accomplish any of the above.
If only I had more time... that's what I find myself saying.
MORE.
TIME...
Like that image from
my last post time is a big ole' freight train barreling around the corner... There's no way you can outrun it- and it's not going to stop for you. But we keep wearing ourselves out trying to catch up with it.
Over the holidays my mom gave me a wonderful book called
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp-
<oh and i just realized it has nesteggs on it! yippy skippy-I swear I didn't plan that.>
In the book she makes a list of 1,000 gifts- not of gifts she wants but gifts she already has. It's a wonderful reminder to be present and appreciate what we have now. Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant..
"Do not disdain the small. The whole of life- even the hard- is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesmals, I miss the whole. There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up."
The other day I was looking through all of my iphone pics, remembering the moments I took them, and smiling. In the spirit of cherishing time and all the little beautiful details along the way here are a few gifts from 2011:
- When you see your puppy on your porch swing. This one needs no further explanation. Kills me!
- The moments where you think Gosh, I love my neighborhood.
- when your {anonymous} client has to crawl through her own doggie door while visiting the jobsite...
Don't worry, I dove in soon after.
- or when a client wants a visual of the fabric so she pretends to be the chair next to the lamp. "Hey, look at me! I'm a chair!"
- when you visit a new farmhouse jobsite on acres of gorgeous land ...
and the friendly neighbors summon you over to chat:
- when you get your first signage and you send it to your dad saying "Look, Dad- I'm all growed up!"
- when the little girls who live down the street come over to play with Finley and leave drawings like this that melt your heart...
- or notes like this...
- when your friend helps you shop at the flea market and you stumble across these chairs as if they've been waiting for you...
- When you set up the timer to take a family picture, run back in my seat and yell"Hurry! Everyone act like they're having a good time!!" *click*
*click* - what is happening?
- when a light fixture you design turns out better than expected...
- or a custom upholstered ottoman bench- sleek and classic:
- when you try to make your puppy your "new, funny best friend"...
- when you find one million pictures of rusty hardware in your phone because that old crap really does make you happy
- when your friend sends you this picture and asks where she can find some platypus babies...
- getting to spend Thasnkgiving in Princeton, NJ
- when green grows on beautiful old buildings
- when precious nephews love on you and ask if they can "go home with Aunt Rachel... Pleeeease???"
- when you take detours to NYC and go for a night on the town with close friends
- a flower by my toothbrush in the morning
- when a new construction project finally starts to feel lived in...
- when you sweet-talk a 200 lb tractor-drivin' workman to Carefully stand on a ladder like a ballerina and hold up a light fixture for you...
- when you get to spend time with good friends over holiday break
- when you realize the gift of blog readers- YOU. All of you who have sent me emails or stopped to introduce yourself- it never ceases to amaze me that people are actually listening to my rambling thoughts. I'm so flattered and humbled... and proud to say I have internet friends.
- when you begin to measure time by how fast your puppy dog is growing.. :(
can you believe-
Here's to a Happy, and present, 2012!
p.s. Everyone name a gift in your life (or something seemingly insignificant that you are grateful for), and drop it in my comment box. Just one. Something small. Just do it. :)
