Serenity Now

Writing has always been one of my passions and it has been a dream of mine to write my thoughts down on paper (actually to type them in Microsoft Word and them copy and paste them into my blog). I have started writing many times and have found myself at a dead end each time. Patience has never been my strong point and although many people in my life would argue, over the past five years my patience has developed considerably. I still would not consider myself a patient person, however, I realize this “condition” and can usually correct my attitude, take a deep breath, and say to myself, “patience, Kim, patience.” Having said that, I hope this blog will go beyond the first few paragraphs that I typically write before my patience lapses.

Within the last five years, my life has changed dramatically, and in in many ways has pushed me towards serenity. Like avid Seinfeld fans would say, “Serenity now”! I am 28 years old. I have been married to my kindergarten classmate for almost 5 years, and all of which I have been a Marine Corps wife. Now you have it, the reason I am now a learned, patient person – the Marine Corps! 

It was years ago when I heard this quote by Chuck Swindoll regarding attitude, but it has stuck with me ever since and has had a great impact on me. 

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

I realize now how accurate that quote actually is. I went from being single, in control of my life to being in a three-way relationship with my husband and the Marine Corp. Life has taken me in a direction that I never imagined, and I no longer have a 10-year plan. Not that I have anything against them, in fact I encourage them. My husband has a multi-faceted 10, 20, and 30-year plan. Between him and the Marines, I let them do all the planning and I love it! (However, I still have veto power over most things.) I am not sure how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful life, but somehow I have! Only other military wives will probably understand how a life full of deployments and packing up and moving every three years can be so rewarding. Not that it is easy, by any means, and deployments never get easier and you never get used to saying goodbye to your friends, but for some strange, romantic reason, I love it!

Eight months ago, my husband and I were blessed with a beautiful, tiny bundle of goodness. Our son was born. From the moment I saw his precious face, something changed in me that I could never begin to explain. Only other parents would know the feeling. For me, it is an entire new emotion that I've never felt before.

I am a mother of a happy, healthy baby boy, a wife of a Marine Corps officer, a daughter of the best mom and dad in the World, a sister to two beautiful, amazing women, a granddaughter to the sweetest, funniest grandparents, and a friend to some of the greatest people on Earth. 

Welcome to my blog - For The Good Times!