The End of a Decade

I realized with horror as I read Jon Acuff's post on his Person of the Decade, that, holy buckets, a decade is ending! As the immortal Louise on Gilmore Girls pointed out, just as there will only be one 175th edition of the Franklin, there will also only be one 176th edition as well. The point of course being that 2011 will be the end of a decade as well. For that matter next week will be the end of a decade, so really this is all just a matter of perspective. These "landmarks" only really exist in our heads.

So why write a whole post on something that is only a big deal in my mind? Well, because... its a big deal in my mind! The concept of a decade ending made me reflect a bit on the decade past. Whenever you reflect on your life, there is an unavoidable sense that you have not lived up to your hopes or expectations. So for the sake of my self-esteem and for the fun of it, I thought I'd chronicle a hodge podge of the events of the past decade. These are not the most significant things that have happened in my life, just several that I thought were interesting. To give you a bit of reference, in the year 2000 I was fifteen years old.

So, here you go...

1. I watched the Y2K insanity.
2. I watched the Twin Towers fall.
3. I went on a mission trip to Haiti (I fell in love with Haiti).
4. I graduated from high school.
5. I graduated in the top 10% of my class.
6. I started a blog!
7. I discovered a passion for my life.
8. I voted for George Bush.
9. I became a Compassion Mommy
10. I fell in love.
11. Someone broke my heart.
12. I broke someone's heart.
13. I voted for Barak Obama...but I didn't mail my ballot.
14. I got a college degree.
15. I lived in SoCal for 4 months.
16. I lost a very dear friend.
17. I did a triathlon.
18. I played a piece by Rachmaninoff.
19. I fell in love with espresso.
20. I went back to college.
21. I got a job with a dental plan. And a retirement plan.
22. I lost three grandparents, an uncle, and an aunt.
23. I gained two sisters, one brother, 4 nieces, and 2 nephews
24. I bought a house.
25. I got a dog.
26. I realized I should never own a house or a dog.
27. I wrote 5 songs.
28. I was in 8 weddings.
29. I made a thousand mistakes.
30. I was forgiven a million times.

Honestly I have not done a whole lot this past decade, but I've recieved more than even I know. The greatest achievement of the past 10 years is not an event to be chronicled but the state of my heart. And that achievement is not my own. So with that here are two more:

I learned more about myself than I could ever recount.
I learned more about the grace of God than I could ever recount.

How about you?