What I learned this week...

It's been awhile since I've participated in Jo-Lynne's What I learned this week's carnival. I haven't blogged much this summer, either. I don't know where the time is going, but it feels like the summer is flying by! There have been a lot of lessons learned this summer so far. I love it. Some of them have been painful, but I'm trying to look at them as growing experiences. We could all stand to grow a little bit, right?

So, I'm just going to list the things I've learned in no random order. I'm not sure I could put them in order if I wanted to do so.

1. It takes two to make a thing go right... it takes two to make it out of sight... As I was watching The Proposal with some friends this weekend and listened to the lead characters sing this song, I was reminded that any kind of relationship takes two. There's only so much you can do to keep a relationship alive if you're the only one doing the work. I struggled for a long time letting go of an old friendship.

2. Sometimes we try to hold onto people the way we try to hold onto things. A good friend said "People can be clutter in one's life the same as junk. Sometimes they just need to go.". I try so hard to see the good in everyone. But there's only so long I can tell myself that maybe they are having a bad day, week, month.

3. Life is too short to surround myself with joy stealers, just for the sake of being a people pleaser.

4. It only took a few months into my 30s to realize I am who I am. Far from perfect, but I am me. I am finally so very happy to be me. I'm done trying to play the people pleaser and trying to keep everyone around me happy. It's quite a relief to have learned that lesson at 30 than 40, 50 or older. I believe in being transparent with close friends and not pretending everything's hunky dory when it's not. We all go through trials, so why pretend that we don't? Living my life in such a way that it pleases God and not caring whether or not it pleases other people sounds much more rewarding than trying to please people.

5. Life giving relationships are such a blessing and come at such unexpected times sometimes.

6. Planning a trip to Disney World can be so much fun and so exciting! I'm not really an advanced planner, but I'm having a blast planning this trip for the kids. I feel like a kid again! Trying to find themed ideas for the family to go in costume to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party has been such a blast!

What have you learned this week?