September marks the start of my annual end of the year reflection, gratitude and goal setting tradition.  This tradition runs from my birthday (which is in two days) through late November/ early December.  Usually the weeks leading into my birthday are filled with reflections of my overall growth from my past birthday to my upcoming birthday.  This year the weeks leading up to my birthday have been very different.  My energy for the past few weeks have been all over the place as a result of everything in my life changing again.  I am doing my best to keep up with the current, but I feel drained every day.  I also find it very challenging to focus and ground myself too.  This specific week has been a metaphor because I can clearly see chapters close and I have noted many chapters opening.  For the first time in a long time I am very excited to step into a new age.  My current age has been very amazing and good to me, but this year has provided so many challenges, hard lessons and realizations that I feel exhausted.  In addition, I received news today that weighed heavily on my heart and instantly brought me to tears.  While I honored my emotions I stopped myself and re-framed my point of view.  While I exist in the unknown, I know life could be worse.  Rather then focus on the negative, I choose to rise up and do the opposite.  I thought about my friends and family.  I thought about their goals and struggles and I prayed for each of them based on what they individually seek.  Then I expressed gratitude for all the lessons, realizations, support, love, friends, and family in my life.  Recently prayer for others and expressing gratitude have been my go to practices to gain a new perspective and give back to the universe the energy that it has given me.  There are moments when we find the silver lining, and in the moments where we can’t find them, it is up to us to create them.