Peace

First, let me draw your attention to Charlie's three different Halloween costumes. While he loved Halloween, Charlie's toddler fickleness was perfectly illustrated by the constant wardrobe changes! Thanks Grandma Meier for making the clown, Indian, and cowboy costumes!

Grandma Meier wasn't able to see the costumes in person because she was busy welcoming our beautiful new nephew, Vinny, into the world! Emily, Jimmy, Joey, and I are going to travel to North Carolina to meet him next week, and until then I have to be content seeing his perfect little face in pictures.

We've had an exciting past couple weeks--besides the fun of Halloween and the kickoff of the holiday season, we've had visits with Coach and Baba, time with our college friends, a stay at a cabin with Nora and her parents, and lots of outings and special events, all with the background buzz of the energy of this fantastic little town. We've been in Oxford for just over a year, and throughout our time here I've been aware of this deep feeling of happiness and peace. Possibly the deepest peace I've ever felt. Yesterday Billy and I returned home from separate (but equally fun and exhausting) weekends away and while the boys played by themselves (!!!) we had the chance to just sit and talk. I realized we've come to the same conclusion about why life has been so good lately.

Just the way we are what we eat, we are what we think, say, and do. In the past year (due to circumstances, not some heroic effort on my part) I've stopped watching gossip "news" and reading gossip magazines (I couldn't tell you who the current "stars" are, let alone who got married, divorced, or arrested), I've stopped going to malls, I haven't spent time with people who have extra money (nearly everyone in this town makes a modest salary and lives in similar sized homes), and I haven't had any conflicts with people (except my children :) Life has been really positive, simple, and wholesome. Building on this, I've realized that when I fill my head with positive, peaceful thoughts, and my day with positive, peaceful activities, my life is a positive and peaceful one. Such a simple concept...but one that I didn't fully understand until this past year. I really thought the silly magazines, occasional catty comments,and splurging on clothes were just fun and guilty pleasures. Now I realize those things, harmless as they seemed, took up valuable space and time and kept me from living the life I wanted. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Billy has had the same realization and that, like me, he appreciates the lack of meaningless "stuff" and negative messages in our life right now. It will be interesting to see if we're able to keep this feeling of peace and happiness as our circumstance change and we have to make the choice to live positively rather than having it made for us.