Reflecting Upon A Time

This time of year is always very busy and even sometimes crazy. There is the hustle and bustle of shoppers, family in town and personally for me a large desire to reflect on this year and to prepare my mind for the next! With only a few days left in 2016, there seems to still be so much that I would like to do. My list of goals may not have been completed fully but I accept that since that's the beauty of creating challenges and goals for myself; it doesn't have to be perfect.

This year of 2016 has had so many emotions and trials that in the end it has really taught me a lot about life, myself and what really matters. This year there were many moments of solitude, soul searching, and learning about myself on a whole new level that wasn't familiar to me before. I think that's something that is normal as you go through your 20's, most likely one of if not the hardest time in your life. There is so much time for self- discovery during these years that is so very needed, yet painful and even lonely at times.

While I was in Rio this Summer, there were many hard moments that I experienced, internally. There were also really nice and enjoyable times, but a lot of them were also more internal. My last day in Rio, I had the hotel room to myself since my roommate had an earlier flight. I just enjoyed soaking everything in, and looking out the window and taking some alone time to myself before my long flights ahead.

If I could pick a month that stands out to me this year, it would most likely be August. There was so much variety and new experiences that collided with one another, challenging, exciting, inspiring, and fear paved the way. The month started with going to a coffee shop with my dearest and inspiring sister, and getting more into my Arabic studies. Learning more about this interesting and exotic language keeps motivating and challenging me to advance my knowledge in this Semitic language.

Close to the middle of August, I was lucky enough and able to go to San Salvador, El Salvador for my sweet sister and brother in law's wedding. I will never forget that day and I don't even think the details will fade my memory. The experience and feeling of being there was something incredible and easy to recreate in memory and feeling but hard to explain in words. The week after the wedding followed a spark in my mind, a necessity to create a blog, something to look forward to and write and share about my interest and passions. This also happened to be one of my hardest weeks of the year- full of anxiety and fear that led my mind and actions. The end of August only got better, and writing on Plum Tree began to become a regular thing, and the last rays of Summer were in due season as Autumn would soon be taking its course.

To be honest, each season this year was very hard and had its moments of pain, but I found that this pain only brought me to know and understand myself better and with this understanding came more appreciation and awareness of  the goodness and beauty around me. I don't have to even look very far to find a glimmer of it. The pain and the emotion throughout these four seasons helped with this beauty, and realizing that all emotion is beautiful.

I think there is still so much more to say about this year, and how 'new' and 'unpredictable' were the words that highlighted this year. But I think I will save it for another post, and leave my reflections and thoughts for another time:) Cheers to this wonderful, long yet short, interesting and surprising year of 2016!! Looking forward to all that's ahead...