November 1st

Today I'm thankful for new beginnings. 

I actually think that new beginnings are absolutely terrifying, but I'm trying my best to be thankful for them. Some of the greatest things in my life have come from things I'm scared to death of, and this is no exception. There's no point in the bad things in life happening (and we all know that they do and will happen) if you don't take something away from it and turn it into something else. 

My JT birthday tradition is to wake up and watch the sunrise. Last year I saw it over the Cayman Islands on a cruise ship- not going to lie, it was inSANE. This year I saw an equally as gorgeous one over the ocean in his hometown.

I feel like when I'm watching it, he's with me. I also feel like it's him reminding me that just because he's not alive, I am. I have the ability to start fresh every day and have a new beginning. It's easy to just roll over and play dead for awhile, but the things in life that are easy usually aren't nearly as worth the things that are hard... right?

Two posts in one day! How's that for a new beginning?

New Concept:

I'm starting over.

Since I was absolutely terrible about keeping up with the old blog, I've decided to try a different approach. I whined, I complained, I cried, I apologized... a lot, actually, but I very rarely talked about the things in my life that make me happy. And there are a lot! 

I've said before that I am the luckiest unlucky girl there is, but I think I end up talking about what makes me unlucky rather than what makes me lucky, which is ridiculous and not even the slightest bit helpful to healing. So my initial blogging journey through grief is archived and put away, hopefully to be able to look back on and say "whoa, I've come a long, long way since then" and I'm starting fresh... I'm going to blog about something that I'm thankful for. I'd say every day, but let's be real- if you know me, you know that it's more likely I'll cheer for Duke than post a blog every day (i.e.- not even the tee tiniest bit likely. Sorry.)

23 months to the day that JT was killed in Afghanistan and the beginning of the month that asks us to take just one day to remember to be thankful seems like a heck of time to take this on, don't you think?

So... here goes!