What a year this has been. Our family has had a lot of success this year. Kingston notched a couple of sports championships: winning titles in basketball and then baseball. His team came up just short in the championship game in football. Ava had great performances in her dance recital and fashion show. Blair completed her Master’s Degree and continued to climb in her professional career. And last, I won my re-election campaign for City Council, receiving more votes than anyone in history for the position in Danville. We have been very blessed this year.
With all that being said, this year still hasn’t been without its challenges. We’ve had illnesses. We’ve had injuries. We’ve had squabbles and everything in between. I suspect that is the case with most families. But through it all, we’ve endured.
And that’s probably the biggest point. We all have our ups and downs. We just hope that the ups outweigh those downs. Country singer Gary Allan had a song that I think sums it up pretty well. In the song, he says:
Life ain’t always beautiful
You think you’re on your way
And it’s just a dead end road at the end of the day
But the struggles make you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has its own way of takin’ its sweet time
No, life ain’t always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life ain’t always beautiful, but it’s a beautiful ride
This year has challenged me a lot, personally. I’m a couple years shy of being 40 years old (which I suppose will cause me to change the name of this recurring column eventually) and I’ve been wrestling with that in some ways. I’ve lived an incredibly blessed life so far, but when you start to reach a certain age, you begin to wonder: what’s next? What are the things that truly make us happy? We never quite know what the future holds, but I know this for certain: I’ll be ready for the next adventure….
