Happy New Year, Goodbye 2014 and Welcome 2015

I made it!   Hard to believe that another year is under my belt.   There never seems to be a year that goes by without lots of challenges and lots of accomplishments.

This year I won't be winning the wife of the year award or #1 mom or even employee of the month.   This year brought forward some personal challenges, some soul searching and some re-evaluating of relationships and priorities.   

This year brought some accomplishments.   Izzy has progressed forward in her training, I ran a personal best 10K time and we added a new life to our home.  

This year I lost myself, I somewhat found myself and I have made some conscience decisions about what energy I wanted to surround myself with.  This year I also became overwhelming cognizant of the power I have control over and the power I don't.   The only energetic domain that you truly own, is your own.  I spent a lot of time, anguish, frustration, worry and judgement meddling in other people's energetic domains.   It's easy to see how others need to change or fix or transform.   How things could be better if they could just see what I see from the outside.

The truth of all of this is that I was just leaking energy and it was draining me of my power of my own transformation.  I spent a lot of time this year neglecting my own power and giving away my power to people that didn't honour it or need it.  Even when I had the best intentions and the energy I was meddling in was out of love or concern for the people I was in relationships with...I have learned to step out, step up and remind myself, "You have no power here."    I have shed a lot of tears over this discovery.   More than I care to even admit but it's the truth.  I also realized that this power struggle I have within myself and within my relationships with family, loved ones, friends and co-workers is a work in progress.    I don't get a do over in this life.  I have leaked a lot of energetic power to others that either don't want it or need it.   A re-focus on not giving away my power in both a negative or a positive sense has been a common theme in 2014 and definitely one I will carry forward into 2015.

My other major learning I will carry forward into 2015 is the fact that the people closest to me know how to push my buttons better than anyone.   From Oprah's, The Life You Want Tour, I learned that the reason the people closest to you can push your buttons the fastest and the hardest is that they installed them.   I will carry this learning into 2015...because I get my buttons pushed a little more frequently than I like.   I need to learn to take a deep breath and remind myself that this is a teachable moment.    I need to breath and ask, "What is it I need to learn here?"  Patience?   Compassion?  Boundaries?   

Now on to the last part of 2014!

My fam jam was at the farm for Christmas dinner.   Chris' parents also made the journey out for the day, which was a rare and special treat since it has been many, many years since they had been away from home on Christmas day!

My Dad spent his Christmas day grading our driveway!

There were special treats on Christmas Day for both horses...

…and humans.

The Babe's were exhausted after a day with the family.  

Molly even fell asleep with her bone!

I have been running on the trail over the holidays.   The major wind, thunder and lightening storm that we had on Christmas eve left several trees down on the trail.   

Got 2 new pairs of shoes.  I can't believe how much better my body feels with new shoes.  Note to self…keep better track of the km's on my shoes and replace them more frequently!

These next couple of pictures will be of particular interest to my friends Karen and Pat.   I was so proud of myself…I got my machine serviced the week before Christmas.   Full cleaning, oiling and repair to the reverse button that has seized.   I kept thinking to myself how Pat had that hardy laugh as I pulled out baby bunnies from my machine that one day at retreat.   The look of disbelief that I had not cleaned it in God only knew how long!  Well…I think I may have vetoed that cleaning on Boxing day!  Wanda has a major shoulder blow out along the seam of her blanket.   It needed a quick fix…even tho my machine had just been serviced!

Dad spent his boxing day digging the dry wells at the arena south side eaves troughs then filling them with clear stone.   We have major washout issues living on the hill.   All the water runs off at quite the pace when you are up high.   These new dry wells will be a big help keeping the gravel on the driveway and not washing out.

My little Marley was a sleepy assistant trainer on Boxing Day!

AND both pups have really missed a lot of sleep in the last 10 days or so with both DH and I home for Christmas Break!