Reflections on 10 years
As I woke up this morning next a wonderful man with whom I am building a lovely relationship, I was struck by how much has changed over the last 10 years. As I sit today, I am sublimely happy but I also know that isn’t an accident. I worked my ass off for this happy.
My Happiness Project
About 5 years ago, I read Gretchen Rubin’s “The Happiness Project” and I thought this would be an interesting topic for a sermon. If you are not familiar with the book, Rubin decided to take a year and embark on a happiness project. She’d pick a different area every month and engage in some sort of self-help like project around that topic. January was Boost Energy (think new year’s resolution), February was Remember Love with a focus on her marriage, April Aim Higher with a focus on her career and so on.
Skipping the Beginning
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with a group of women who are in the midst of a coaching program that I completed last year. The goal of the program is to grow your relationship skills and resolve the barriers that have kept you from creating a great relationship. As a graduate of the program, the women had a lot of questions for me and most of the questions centered around how I am showing up in relationships now differently than I had in the past. In the conversation though, I had a realization about myself that I hadn’t quite been able to articulate previously.
Music as Therapy
Recently I was putting together a mixtape of sorts (I think the kids call them playlists today). Remember those? For me it almost always started with a song and I’d build from there. Finding a group of songs that fit together in such a way as to tell a story, so share a part of myself. I remember the mixtapes I made for friends, the mixtapes that were made for me by friends and loves. Music is such a powerful medium for processing emotions.