Giving thanks!

Such a year this has been! A whirlwind of life changing up and downs and right here, right now; I am mostly dazed thankful for surviving it. The list of this year’s event and my reasons for being grateful goes as:

-The opportunity to spend a couple of months with my father. I am glad I have grown up enough to appreciate my dad for his wonderful personality and friendship as well as his parental love and presence.

-Surviving three months of intense house hunting and finding the perfect one at the end. It is a beautiful bright house that felt home from the moment we set foot in and we knew instantly we can live there for many years to come. I am thankful for finding the house and more importantly for being able to afford it!

-Surviving six months of stressful job hunting. I am glad I was able to get through the rejections (and mostly not hearing back froms). Sometime in the middle of all that stress and despair, I was able to look at my career critically and decide to look for a job that makes me happy in the long run. Looking for a happy career instead of finding just a job, allowed me to define my goals and focus and to take steps in that direction. I am thankful for that clarification and this new attitude.

-Referring to the previous item, I am thankful as the Universe attested to my good decision by dropping a wonderful position right into my lap. Of course, this job came with its own challenges mainly moving to another state and later to another country, in addition to learning a whole new set of skills and shouldering a lot more responsibility but I can face these challenges knowing they are preparing me for my perfect future career. I am grateful for finally being on the right path and taking the steps toward a well-defined long term goal.

-I am sincerely thankful for all the tough and challenging situations in my life, for all the up and downs and for all the starting-from-scratches and for all the rejections, disappointments and failures because they have made me who I am today. Someone who can move by herself all alone to another city in another state, meet a whole department of new people and start a whole new job without any help or support. Someone who can look forward to doing the same all over again in a few short months and actually to find the whole situation exciting!  Thank you Life, thank you Mr. Universe for making me strong enough to handle what you are throwing at me, not only that but to crave new challenges and actually flourish. This gratefulness won’t mean that I won’t grumble, complain and whine or will become less anxious and stressed, only that deep down I know with certainty why I am suffering!

And yes as always, I am thankful for my supportive soul mate and life partner, for my loving family and great friends, for being healthy and having resources to achieve my goals.