Year in review.

I was thinking last night about 26 and how even though I feel like "I didn't appreciate it to the fullest!" (really what I think this translates to is that each year seems to go by faster than the one before), 26 was a big, full year for me.

I got engaged.
I got promoted twice in two weeks, and my job changed radically.
I visited a friend and fell in love with her little boy, who I hadn't seen since he was a baby.
I ran a 5k, my first race.
We spent several months taking care of an ill family member, and ultimately saw her return in large part to health.
I saw my brother graduate from college.
We planned a wedding (! I mean, that's a big deal.)
I planned and threw a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom.
I had an extremely painful falling-out with two friends, a dispute that was left bloodily unresolved, and that I am still trying to forget about, though I feel in all ways that I am better off without them.
We watched our goddaughter grow from a tiny infant into a little person, and saw her brother's personality expand in delightful leaps and bounds.
We drove up and down the NJ Turnpike so many times we could have bought an entire Bolt bus with what we paid in tolls.
It was a long, cold, tough winter (and spring), and it affected my mood, which in turn affected my relationship. I began making serious efforts to correct this.
I tried to run a 10k (which became a 5k and then walking. Do I get points for mountains?)
I started taking yoga (last summer--26th birthday present, and then restarted again last month), which maybe sounds trite because I feel like yoga has been so appropriated by yuppie culture, but I find that it helps me immeasurably, both physically and mentally. I was thinking all these thoughts on the way home from yoga, in fact.

The instructor told us a little parable about how as humans we want to control everything outside of us; it's like we're walking barefoot on a gravel path studded with glass, and so we say, "I'll just put a roll of leather down on the path." But instead, wouldn't it be so much easier to just put some leather on your feet? Shoes, in other words. That's what I'm trying to do for 27. Put some leather on my feet, so outside things don't control my inside life.