For some reason I always become introspective this time of year.  Perhaps it’s that my birthday was a few weeks ago.  Anyway I am happy with all the decisions I made over the past year.  I feel that life is a journey to enlightenment.  I will never know if and when I achieve enlightenment, because I feel that there will always be lessons to be learned.  Unlike a lot of people, I don’t have regrets.  Yes, some decisions I made in the past, especially in my 20’s, were not the wisest decisions, but I learned from all of those missteps. 

Part of my journey has been to accept that there will always be someone that is disappointed in me, but not to let their disappointment dictate my life.  You only have one chance to live this fleeting life, and I choose to live my life out loud.  I like to try new things and see what insight I can gain from it. 

Flying lessons have taught me that not everything will come easy to me and that I can overcome a lifelong fear of flying (actually, the fear is crashing).  I still have not overcome the fear completely, but I am working on it. 

Ballroom Dancing has taught me that the way I can memorize number series carries over to dancing.  For some odd reason my brain interprets patterns as numbers, which allows me to achieve muscle memory faster than most people.  Ballroom also gives me pure joy to dance with Walt.  I feel blessed every time we dance.

Scuba has taught me to slow my breathing down, which helps me out when I am stressed out of the water.  It has also allowed me to see up close how marvelous life is underwater.  I have seen some amazing animal and sea life down there and it is awe inspiring.  I can’t wait to see what I learn from diving with sharks!

Some lessons were a little rougher to learn.  When Walt and I went ATV’ing in Cabo I learned that sometimes going full throttle is not a good idea.  I flipped my ATV going full speed into a ditch.  I was cut and bruised, and thankful it did not roll on me.  I love to live life full throttle, but sometimes it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we must all live our lives for ourselves, blaze our own trail, LIVE LIFE OUTLOUD, and hopefully find wisdom and enlightenment in the journey.

- Lisa Lounsbery