2011- A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."- Charles Dickens

I was never a fan of Charles Dickens' novels while in school. The novels were quite lengthy and we always had to over analyze them in English class. However, this year, I keep going back to this quote realizing it represents my experiences of 2011 in a nutshell.

This year included the best times in my life enjoying all the wedding fesitivies and an amazing honeymoon with an even more amazing husband. All those memories I will treasure forever and always think back how much fun we had. We are truly blessed with such great memories. In the same year, though, we have had so much sorrow and the worst times in our life with the loss of both Adam's father and grandmother.

As the holidays are among us and we adapt to our new "normal", I struggle with my feelings about this year. Yesterday, as I read some blogs, I came across the following quote:

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?”- Kahlil Gibran

I choose and hope to be able to look back at 2011 as not a "good" or "bad" year but instead as a year of necessary growth. I still don't understand and may never really know why things must unfold as they do but I will take a leap of faith and hope for the best!