#166 He Finds Good Things

On New Year's Eve last year, I posted about the highlights of 2013 here at Somewhere That's Green. Though it had not been my intention, doing so helped to change my perspective when reflecting on the year. Too often, our gut instinct is to down play our year. But when I look over everything that I have cataloged through blog posts and pictures throughout the year, I am always amazed at how much happened.

While nothing so spectacular as discovering the cure for cancer or hitting the lottery occurred in my life, the things that did happen were wonderful and worth celebrating.

To me, New Year's shouldn't be about letting out a sigh of relief that the previous year is over. Instead it should be about gaining a breath of excitement for the opportunity to make the next year even better.

I've seen a lot of bloggers commit to starting a Good Things Jar and I have decided to do one, too. I see it as my reward on New Year's Eve for being positive during the year. After all, there will be some things that happen that I won't have a chance to capture on film or I might not be able to write an entire blog post about, but I can certainly scribble a sentence down on paper and toss it into a jar.

That said, if I had started a Good Things Jar last year, here are a few things that might have been included:

February
Our trip to Baltimore

May
Wedding in North Carolina
Hubby turned 30

June

The entire month of June

Our trip to Vegas

July
My return to the violin

August
Writer's Digest Conference
Our trip with Jonathan to: Knobels, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jamestown, NY, and Niagara Falls

September

My first time in the Empire State Building and the start of Weekend I'd Forget

October
Our first Pakistani wedding and my first time in a saree

You might not start a Good Things Jar, but see if you can find the good in each day of the year, rather than the bad. It will make not only your New Year's Eve, but your entire year that much more enjoyable.