Today is my birthday. It has been a good day. My morning started with coffee, an oracle reading, and I met a friend for coffee and a chat. I looked and felt good, despite only sleeping a couple hours because of lingering pain from the issues from my lungs.

I looked over my post from my 51st birthday. I spoke of ‘living my best life’ for the coming year, being inspired by my parents (Dad & step Mom), and while it didn’t matter much what that looked like, I had hoped to keep people together and accomplish some of the things I wanted to do.

By those metrics, the year was a success. And truly, it was.

I kept my people together, and yes, there was a point I really didn’t think we’d make the summer. Things were bleak. Really, really bleak. When I wrote my birthday post last year, my husband and son were not speaking (and hadn’t spoken since March). But we are working it out.

And I did things I wanted. My Reiki Training… My Yoga Teacher Training… And my Embodied Mastery… And I taught my first class… It has been a positive year for doing things for myself.

All while doing the hard things. Like losing my Mom. I really didn’t know sometimes how to keep pressing on once she died. The world isn’t the same without her in it. There are times when I think “OH! I have to text Mom and tell her…” And then the world crashes in and I remember she isn’t here anymore.

So, in the eternal words of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Where do we go from here?” I am now on my way to 53! Which is okay. I don’t have a problem with numbers. But I need to figure out what this new year has in store for me.

For right now, though, I think I am just going to try and work on feeling a little better, sleeping a little more than an hour at a time, and will see about trying to eat a few more vegetables.