One Year Later...Still Celebrating Life!!!

I recently heard someone somewhere say, “Dreams change all the time.  The only thing to do is change the future.” That seems like a beautiful thought to remember in this crazy life we live...changing the future one dream at a time!  Love it :) 

One year ago today, I went into work and told my manager that it was time for me to leave the job that had made me so unhappy for so long; and, that it was time for me to step out into the world, find Marci again and make my dreams come true on my own.  I told her that I would be spending the summer traveling the States and spending time with my family and that I would be moving to Berlin in August.  She knew how much I had wanted to work with the company internationally and she knew how my time at the company had been quite the roller coaster.  She also knew how much I wanted to live in Europe again and use my languages and travel.  So she was happy for me, everyone was really happy for me; but no one could have been as happy for me as I was.  I was already starting to feel free and liberated in the days and weeks leading up to that Friday…but on that day, on May 11^th, when I gave my notice, I felt truly FREE.  It was a great feeling that I carried with me throughout the next days, weeks and months!

One year ago right now, I was walking the streets of DC with my head a little higher, a little more light in my eyes, a swing in my hips, a big smile on my face and I yelled as I walked down 14^th street, shouting happily: “It’s MAY 11^th!!  Celebrate life everyone!!”  It sounds a bit wild and I’m sure Michel thought I was a bit crazier for it (at least as I celebrated quitting my job, she was celebrating being offered a job that same day)…but it was just a time of celebration and it was a wonderful night!

So as I sit here and think of that time in my life last year, it really seems unbelievable and beautiful to me that a year later to that very same week, I would be starting my own new job…especially considering that it’s a job I have dreamt of doing for as long as I can remember.  Truly! When I look back as far as I can in my memory (and I don’t have a great memory, so I’m about five or six)…I always remember LOVING the grocery store, LOVING grocery shopping, LOVING bagging and just DREAMING of being a “cash register girl” one day.  Seriously.  So, a few weeks ago, when I decided that it’s about time for me to get back to work, I applied for a cashier job at a gorgeous grocery store out here in Colorado (I'll fill you in on the Colorado part in another post!).  To my delight, they called me within a day to set up an interview and I started this past Tuesday!  I can’t even tell you how awesome it felt during the interview and again on the phone when I accepted the job offer and then again to many customers and colleagues in the last days and to anyone who asks about my current job status…every time I get to say that I’m making a life-long dream come true, I just get the BIGGEST smile on my face...and, also in my heart!  It’s a dream come true, how could I not be thrilled??

Perks of the new job = expired sunflowers coming home with me for free!

And it makes life just seem even more amazing because it allows me to see how we can make awesome things happen, no matter how big or small.  Anything and everything is possible, especially when it’s something that we think about for months or years or decades….we can do it, we can do anything!  Well, at least, we can do soooo very much.  It amazes me and humbles me and makes me so much more grateful for life and everything that I’ve lived in mine.  Even the bad things, because there are bad things in everyone’s life, I don’t know how someone could get through life without something bad happening to them.  So, even those bad things that sometimes haunt me and sadden my spirit, even they have helped bring me to where I am today.  They have been a part of the story and they are things that I’ve overcome.  They have been a part of growing and learning and loving and losing and hurting and living.  They are a piece of the intricate puzzle that becomes each of our lives.  In moments like this one, when I find myself living in a wonderful, nature-filled place I had never thought about living in until December 2012, I just take it all in.  Having followed my heart and led myself (sometimes a bit blindly!) along my journey, I find comfort and peace in where I have been and where I am.  And I am so easily able to sit quietly and look out at the beautiful world around me and hear the chirping birds coming out from the rainy day, see the big blue Colorado skies above the Rocky Mountain backdrop, feel the sun shining down, rays through the trees, just so many birds singing and talking and calling away.  When I can sit here and see and hear and feel the world around me and remember as I look back on my life this last year and really absorb and see and feel all that has happened…I can be nothing but happy and grateful to have had such an amazing opportunity to live my life and get to know myself again.  To FIND myself.  I escaped that dark time during my last job and was able to come out the other side of it to go on an adventurous year-long journey which led me to finding the sun on my cheeks, fresh air filling my lungs and the sounds of spring in my heart. 

One year ago today, I walked into work and let them know that I had to leave the job that was stomping out my spirit and go in pursuit of my dreams on my own.  I took life by the reigns and I took off on one of the greatest adventures I’ve had so far. All of the traveling and living and appreciating of time with myself and with my very dear loved ones…family and friends spread around many different places; making a dream of at least a few years come true and living in Berlin; going through many happy moments and some really hard and sad ones too.  It’s been quite an amazing chapter that I am so very grateful to have had.  And what a difference one year can make in life! A year ago I was leaving a dark time in my life to follow my heart, find light and love and peace in my heart…find myself; and fulfill dreams.  Today, I can proudly and happily say that I have done and continue to do all of those things! 

I couldn’t have been happier this week to go into Sprouts and start work.  Although I was a bit worried on Monday before I knew what type of registers they have…I was just really hoping that it wouldn’t be touch screen buttons, that would have made the entire thing a bit of an anti-climax.  But have no fear…the buttons are just perfect!!  I trained for about two hours on Tuesday before I started to ring up customers and push the very buttons that got me into this life-long dream in the first place!  It was ALWAYS about the cash register and the buttons…I had always dreamt of pushing those fantastic buttons!  (Seriously!) Throughout my shifts, I just keep saying “it’s a dream come true” to colleagues and customers alike.  I love it.  It makes my heart happy.  It makes me realize how many different, random, wonderful opportunities are out there that we can reach for throughout life.  We just have to allow ourselves to dream the dreams and see the opportunities. We can really “reach for the stars” as they say: I don’t know about you, but I really do sometimes feel like I’m on my tippy toes just reaching as high as I can.  Life is just a big ol’ pile of risks and question marks and unknown answers.  And sometimes it’s just about being willing to jump off the ledge and do a lil “Free Fallin’” for a bit…til you find your perfect wind.  Kind of like a bird does as it soars through the sky………or even, perhaps, just like a butterfly!