Been a long time!

Seems like my Mom and I don't get here very often right now. Everything is just so busy.

She's gone back to school for ANOTHER degree and is spending most of her time buried under a pile of homework. Haha! She's got HOMEWORK! Kind of funny - she's got homework in the summer and I can just sit back and relax!

She did do something to celebrate my birthday after all. We went out and she bought me a new pair of jeans, and then took me to lunch at my favorite place (it's an all you can eat buffet). It was a good surprise.

I was hoping to get a real job this summer, but I haven't found one yet. I've been doing yardwork for some people and also spending a lot of time at drumline practices.

~Jonathon

Thoughts on adversity

Have you ever sat on a beach building a sand castle, trying to keep the waves from attacking your creation? As each wave comes, it washes away a part of the structure. Nothing you could do would prevent this. And each time that same wave smoothes out the rough edges.

If that isn’t a metaphor for life, I don’t know what is.

When I think about the enormously tough roads I’ve traveled, I realize that it was during those times when I got better...when I grew. The tough times – they’re never over – they change and evolve, as we do, but these struggles are what balance us and make us stronger. They bring us out even more clear and more centered.

Adversity can be like the waves of the ocean. It can smooth out our rough edges and make us more beautiful - if we accept that change- and we can welcome the challenge of new growth into our lives.

Or we can continually attempt to remain cloaked in a blanket of happy thoughts, refusing to go near the water’s edge. And in so choosing, we will remain unchanged. To gain that enhancement- that wonderful new growth- you must embrace the tough times.

If you don’t embrace the changing seasons of your own world, you will lose out.