I'm grateful to have completed another great year of life. Lots of good stuff happened in Lee's world 2008. Obviously there were challenges and sadness too, but those were outweighed by the good this year. Most important is that I feel really good about the relationships I have with friends and family right now. I feel like I'm working to become more understanding, friendly and honest every day and it's working. I've learned a lot about being a better person and about how I most enjoy life and fulfill my personal mission of inspiring human elevation.
The new friends I connected with this year are amazing, as are the old ones I continue to connect with. I'm really frickin lucky to surround myself with the people in my life. Some great friends moved on and some others moved in. And the family is good and positive. Yeah, that includes you mom :)
I achieved some dreams of completing my first publication that will evolve and play some important role in increasing global peace (170 Essentials to Know as an Immigrant in the United States), and I became a multicultural dance aerobics teacher and am spreading fun, physical fitness and damn good music. It was even a great year with soccer, our team advancing and no major injuries for me. My body is more flexible and can now touch my toes without bending my knees for the first time. I continue riding and getting joy from my cruiser bike almost daily. Today I rode along the creek which is super beautiful with the ice and snow lining the sides of the flowing water. Being able to stop along the creek a couple days a week to watch and listen to the water is a great privilege.
I had another amazing trip to Peru in June, one of my better trips ever with the wonderful combination of translating between doctors to bridge gaps of crucial medical knowledge, hanging out with the kids at La Canoa, and partying at night. And Mexico was awesome too, and I was able to absorb a bunch of culture, fun and grease in 5 days.
Intercambio keeps thriving, and we managed to continue growing and improving during a time of much internal transition and an economic collapse. 2009 will be challenging, but only because we have huge goals for continuing to strengthen locally while spreading the model and mission nationally. We just have to work a little harder and smarter. And Vinny and I finished our video with the help of People Productions. The fiesta and fiesta dance were as fun as ever, we had lots of other sweet Intercambio events including the rec center events, volunteer appreciation, Halloween, the potluck dance party, the tax workshop in Longmont that turned into a cumbia concert, and many others.
Even politics turned out good at the end of the year. We have an intelligent, reasonable, and cool President who has an incredibly hard job now but is a great guy to get it done. The economic situation is going downhill, but I already wrote about that a few weeks ago.
I could go on, but in general I'm happy to wrap up what was another great year of life. Thank you to all who are a part of my life. Once you're a part of someone's life you're a part of it forever. Now I'm ready to party on Wednesday :)
Comments