Why Me? A post about gratitude

It's human nature to always be worrying about what's coming next and to focus on life's stressors; it's a survival tactic. But sometimes things click so perfectly in your life that you can't help but stop and notice how freaking lucky you are. I am at that place in my life right now, to the point where I keep asking myself, "Why me?" Why am I so lucky? Why does everything I hope for come so easily to me? I am not a particularly spiritual person. I know that I am a kind and empathetic person, but I consider myself agnostic if not atheist. But days like this make me consider whether I had a past life in which I earned some serious karma brownie points.

And so, friends and family, this is a post about gratitude. I don't know who I'm grateful to exactly, but I DO know what I am grateful for.

1. My husband: I am, by nature, an anxious person. He "gets" me and this chills me the heck out.
2. A totally sweet living space: I do dream of someday having a larger, single family house with a big back yard, but our condo is simple, cute, and easy. And you know what they say... "location, location location"; I can't think of a better place to be with a dog and a baby than JP! Plus, let's be honest, I can't even keep 500 square feet of floor clean... I don't even want to know how dirty a whole house could get!
3. My daughter: I have wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. Case in point, I read the Dr. Sears Baby Book cover to cover (nearly 800 pages!) several years before we even started seriously talking about having kids. Now I have a sweet, generally easy, and yet spunky little girl who is the light of my life.
4. My MPH: Despite becoming a mom while in grad school, I managed to finish. Phew! Otherwise I would have wasted a LOT of loans!!
5. My new job: When I posted on Facebook that I was looking for a job that allowed me to be with my daughter and yet still help moms and babies, it was almost a joke. I didn't think such a job really existed. By some stroke of luck I happen to be friends with the owner of Mama & Me, who also happened to be looking for someone to help with promotions among other things, and I just happened to have the qualifications and personality to fill that gap. I only started a few weeks ago and I'm already planning, developing, promoting, and running events with two of my professional idols. Seriously, if I could have dreamed up the perfect post-graduation job, this would be it. And I can't help shamelessly promoting said events, so please check out http://www.mymamaandme.com/world-breastfeeding-week/ and https://www.facebook.com/mamaandmestudio/events!!!

I'm still working on the work/life balance (I'm not sure anyone ever stops working on that? Certainly not parents!), but I am just so excited to be me right now. So if I see you on the street and you ask how I'm doing and I answer a tad maniacally, just know that it's a combination of sleep deprivation and true enthusiasm.