A New Year - A Blank Canvas

I opened my Garmin Connect account this morning, and when I opened the calendar, it was completely blank.

I know it is New Year's Day, so I should have expected that, but it kind of took me by surprise.  It was a very graphic visual of what an open ended opportunity awaits me in the next 366 days.

We all write our own story, one unit at a time.  We can look at the units as measures of time, like minutes, hours, or days.  Or we can look at the units as acts; acts of kindness, acts of friendship, acts of love.

But however we measure our lives, we are the ones writing the story.

What do you want your story to be?  Do you want it to be inspirational?  Do you want it to be dramatic?  Do you want it to be funny?  Do you want it to be romantic?

Knowing what you want your story to be helps you to build the outline so that you can live the story you want to live.

Life will always throw curveballs at you.  Things will happen that you didn't expect.  You will not get to live your life exactly the way you want, because there are too many things that are out of control.

But if you know what you want your story to be, if you choose a purpose and dedicate yourself to it, at the end, your story will be what you want it to be.

It is easy to just live.  Wake up, meet the day's responsibilities (or not), go to sleep; do over.  And for many people, that is a comfortable way to live.

But it is not comfortable for me.  I am driven to have a vision, and to have a purpose.  That vision, that purpose provides hope in dark times and comfort in sadness.

My vision and sense of purpose are the outline for the story of my life.  My life story is one of trying to make it better.

Bringing light in darkness, bringing laughter to sad days, bringing comfort to the hurting, bringing inspiration to the hopeless.

I don't know from measure to measure how well I am doing.  But I just keep on trying.  Because while I think I am creating the story of my life, it is actually the people I interact with that are writing the story.

The memories of me that I leave behind are truly the story of my life.  The more memories I make with people that make them smile or laugh when they think of me, the more successful my story is.

The more memories I make with people that inspire them to keep on trying, the more successful my story is.

2016 is another blank canvas to fill with memories.   I hope the memories I create with you this year are good ones.