Its Monday afternoon in Central Indiana, cool to the point of being cold, dreary as it is from November 1 – April 1, and I am finding myself.  When I first started on this journey, I would have been depressed and anxiety ridden about this day.  I am still stuck in Indiana when I want to be in Florida.  I have had no luck selling my business which I saw as an anchor holding me back from achieving my dreams and I would have been totally stressed out by my fears of the future.  That is no way to live.  When I was spending my whole life stressing about things in the future, I never lived today.  I survived each day but I didn’t find the time to enjoy even a few minutes of it because I was projecting myself into a future that no one can predict.  I can’t live in the future.  If I am living in the future, worried about the future, wanting the future that I desire to hurry up and get here, I completely miss today!  If I am not living in the present, how is it even possible to figure out who I am.  The only thing that is possible is for me to project who I might be in the future.  I want to know who I am today.  To figure that out, I have to live in the present moment.  So here I am – in the present.

There are customers walking around the second floor of our 120 year old building just outside my office space.  I can hear the creaking of the ancient wooden floors.  That creaking is somehow comforting to me.  I can think of the thousands of feet that have trodden these floors in the past.  I can hear these customers talking to each other, exclaiming their delight in the beautiful prom dresses they are searching through.  Mom’s and daughters sharing this experience.  What a blessing!  I’m so glad I am able to provide them this experience!  I also hear one of my long time employees helping the girls with their search.  What a blessing!  This employee was a star athlete and student -the whole package – in high school.  Then she got pregnant and delivered her son 3 weeks after her senior prom.  This could have been a disaster for some but not for her.  She came to us 5 months pregnant seeking a job.  I saw in her something special.  She has worked for us for over 2 years now.  She is going to college full time and will start student teaching in about 9 months.  She is raising her son in whom she sees all the glory of God.  She loves working with our customers.  She is going to leave us in a little over a year so that she can go out into the world and make the world a better place!  What a blessing!  My greatest achievement is using this business to make the world a better place by helping these girls get through college so that they can be a gift to the world.  How blessed am I!  Being present in the moment today has made me so grateful for the blessed life I am living.  So, who am I?  I am blessed.