Promise to win in 2010

I'm happier than a fat pig in slop. So so very happy to be able to see another year. No I haven't won the Mega millions and yes, I have finished writing a book but no you won't find my name sitting high on the New York Times best seller list. I'm just happy.

The closing out of 2009 was uneventful. My family did absolutely nothing for Christmas and I was estatic. No one cooked macaroni and cheese, turkey and dressings and all the trimmings. My mom and aunts finally got that we don't need to have enough food to feed a third world country during the holidays. However, my aunt and I went to the movies and gleefully licked that artery clogging butter from our fingers. Absolute bliss. Quiet, uneventful. And peaceful.

The beginning of the year brought my friend losing her mom and my cousin losing his dad. The mom was 53 and my cousin's dad wasn't even 50. My cousin losing his dad really ate me up on the inside. It was bothering me so bad that I had to talk to my mom about it. I couldn't understand when so many deadbeat dads are running around why God allowed a good father to go home to glory. That just didn't sit well with me. She told me although it was natural for me to feel bad for my cousin, I was wasting my time being angry. "We all have to go sometime," she said. I knew that she is right and her words kind of shook me out of my funk. I mean, no one really ever thinks that it is their loved ones time to go, right? So if I were to take that attitude every time someone transitioned, I would stay upset.

So maybe that's why I've been a bit more chipper than usual. Grateful. Thankful yet always reminded that things could be worse. I could've woken up under 10 feet of rubble from the trappings of a earthquake. Instead I wake up each morning in my own bed. In my right mind (depending on whom you ask) with use of my arms, toes and being able to breathe on my own.

I think I'm finally growing up. It doesn't take much to make me happy, to make me smile with glee. My mother always said that I would get tired of running from place to place, flying here and there. In true mama form, she was right. There ain't nothing like being still. When you are constantly going and going, you really do miss out on the simple things. The joyful things. The "I don't want anything for Christmas except going to see 'The Princess and the Frog'" type of things. This grown up business is the bomb when it's done properly. So stop moving so fast and take time to grow up. And always remember to take time to say 'thank you'.

"Tragedies are commonplace
All kinds of diseases,
people are slipping away
Economies down, people don't get
Enough pay
But as for me all I can say is
Thank you Lord for all
you done for me
I wanna thank you for your love
Thank you for your power
Thank you for
protection, every hour
Thank you..."~Mary, Mary and Walter Hawkins and any choir around the world.