Thanks For…

…The last year, because what a difference one year can make.

I feel like I have beaten this topic to death, and I hope to let it go completely after this (at least as far as blogging is concerned).  It has been a few months since experiencing any kind of anxiety and/or panic, and even the perfectionism is waning.  I am not “cured”—as with many conditions such as these, it’s a day-to-day battle; one thing—most likely something you don’t see coming—can set it off quite suddenly.  But I have been using everything in my bag of tricks to help me deal with it.  It has been a rough year, with many internal struggles.  But I have learned a lot because of these struggles, a lot about myself and a lot about how to deal with my feelings and thoughts.  And I have to say that I’m a better person because of it, despite the turmoil I went through.

On this eve of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank you, my readers, for sticking with me and my blog even though it was sometimes never about the reason you started reading in the first place.  I joined this community simply for our joint love and obsession of all things planners.  It has allowed me to connect with planner-lovers all over the country and throughout the world.  But as many of you have experienced for yourselves, this community has grown to much more than that.  The support and concern I have received from many of you is overwhelming, particularly because I have met only a handful of you in person.  It’s amazing to me that a group of near strangers can be more supportive and concerned than many of the people I see regularly.  I have mentioned that before, and I’ll probably mention it again, because it just astounds me.  That says a lot about you all, about the kind of people you are, and about how lucky we all are that this community consists of such great individuals.  I will be forever grateful for your allowing me to use this space as a place to voice my own issues and work through them, all the while reading every word (at least, I’m assuming you have, though it’s understandable if you didn’t).

In the last six months, I have unintentionally let go of my Happiness Project.  I hope to remedy this in 2012.  This time around though, I want to use it to appreciate more of the good in my life, rather than focusing on turning around the bad.  It’s a slight difference, but really it’s just looking forward to happiness instead of looking back on sadness.  I could (and probably should) start the project again now, but with all of the holiday craziness looming, I know I won’t give it the attention it deserves, the attention I want to give it.  So I’m giving myself some time to really think about what I want to achieve with the project before actually starting it.  Plus, I’m not putting pressure on myself to do it well (notice I didn’t say perfectly).

So once again, thank you all for your unending support and for reading along with my struggles and offering tips.  I look forward to another year of writing about a variety of topics (fingers crossed for even more planner posts!).

To all of my American friends: I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Thanksgiving.

To my friends elsewhere: I hope you have a wonderful weekend.