What I Achieved in 2010

Across the blogosphere I was reading about peoples' achievements in 2010 and it made me feel uneasy because I can't really think of very many memorable personal achievements in the past year.   Other people got their PhDs, wrote a book, nurtured a baby to birth, started or grew a business, got a job, moved to a new house, or made some huge change in their life.

Me, my life looks not too different than the way it did when I saw 2010 come in.   I can really only think of a few changes:

1. I prepared my two youngest to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time in December.
2. I lost 20 pounds and have kept it off for 6 months -- this is the first January my weight has been this low for probably close to 10 years.
3. I have exercised near-daily and intentionally for 8 months now.
4. I have given away or tossed over 100 large-trash-bags of stuff that we had in our house.

Sigh. .... when my kids were infants and toddlers, or medically fragile, it didn't bother me that I seemed to be running in place, because running in place seemed like what I needed to be doing.

Now, though -- my youngest is 8 years old, several of my kids are grown and either in college or working, and I feel like I should go back to college or get a job or do SOMETHING that has a learning curve.   The opportunities where I am seem limited, though maybe it is my perspective that is limited.

In some ways, I think, I was getting in shape and lightening up the household load because those issues were getting in the way of doing something more.  But having cleared the path, I am not sure what the "more" is!

Maybe 2011 will tell me --  in the meantime I keep n mind what Milton wrote, that
...they also serve who only stand and wait.

and what St Francis de Sales wrote (somewhere) that ordinary life is a daily training for what God has in mind for you, whatever that is.    

Oh yes, and

5.  I learned to operate a snowblower!  There's something!