Love

Its Valentines day, and to me it is just a reminder of all the people I have in my life that love me. I am very lucky and extremely blessed for all I have. I am also equally blessed to see my mother happy and in love. There is nothing like hearing about her romantic date with her guy to make me smile! My mother has been a light in my life and to finally see her getting all that she deserves makes me unbelievably happy.

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“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

We tweet therefore we are

I started with the Farland Group in Cambridge (www.farlandgroup.com)in October of last year and have been on this journey of recognizing just how important social media has become in our world. Twitter is newer to me and honestly I never truly understood the power of it until I took on this position. It truly is a way to share knowledge, stay connected, and to network in a way that is a lot, for lack of a better word, cleaner then Facebook. I am slowly getting my feet wet and learning what to tweet, and/or retweet. It is this magical land of people sharing links to great articles, new restaurants or there old favorites. It can be something as simple as a comment on the day, or a hello, to someone networking looking for a new job. Really there does not seem to be anything that you can not tweet about. I sometimes find the character length to be annoying, however it keeps those of us (ahem) that tend to ramble on a short leash, and teaches us to perhaps learn how to simplify the way we express a thought. I am finding it a tad intimidating, however I am tiptoeing around and peeping in on what my peers are talking about, and hope to catch on rather quickly. If you are a fellow tweeter look me up TFitz_76. Tweet you later :)

Happy New Year 2011

Another New Year has ushered in. I truly enjoyed my holidays this year, I did not stress about things or worry about where I was going, or who I was seeing. I just allowed myself to enjoy it. If people stole a parking spot or cut me off, I just let it go. I mean it really will do me no good to get upset about it. The holidays tend to cause people to get a little wacky and I just went on my merry way and allowed them to stew in there insanity. I still have my tree up. I am one of those that keep the decorations up through what is called "little Christmas" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Christmas My mother is from Ireland and we always kept our tree up until January 6th. Honestly, and I can not believe I am going to admit this, but I would love to keep my tree up year round. It makes me happy, and makes me smile, and to be truthful I am sure it would get me through a dark and dreary winter alot easier. However it will come down this weekend and go back to hibernation until the holidays are once again upon us.
What are my hopes for the new year? I just hope to continue to count my blessings, to share my life with people that love and care for me and to be as good of a person every day as I can be. Really what more can you ask for in life. Wake up each day and embrace it! We only have one life so we should seize it and live it to the fullest. This year I will chose to do what makes me happy and not always worry about what others around me are thinking. Have a GREAT start to 2011 friends.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

I don't know what it is exactly, but I just love Christmas time. Could it be because I live in New England and the cold weather just lends itself to the "real" feel of the holidays coming and then the lights and trees start going up all around you and you have no escape from it? Could it be the music and the Christmas decorations that miraculously appear now up to two weeks before Thanksgiving? Possibly a bit of that brings it out in me.

Although I remember loving Christmas as a child, the feeling I would get Christmas Eve when we would get one present to open, and it was always a new pair of PJ's to wear. It was a small tradition my mother started and it was always expected. Then we would go to bed and stare at the ceiling trying to go to sleep, but knowing that Santa was on his way gave us a rush that slumber could not touch. No matter how much sleep you did or did not get you would jump out of bed at some ungodly hour and run to the living room that had overnight transformed into this magical and beautiful land of perfectly wrapped packages that sparkled under the glow of the tree. The milk we left for Santa would be almost gone and one lonely half eaten cookie would be on the plate. All of these things let us know that Santa had enjoyed his visit in the Fitzpatrick home. Over the years as all things do, things changed as we grew, however the magic of what Christmas was always stayed in my heart.

As I got older I also learned more about what the holiday was to my family and the struggles that came with making Christmas special for us. I saw how hard my mother and father worked to provide for us and to make sure that we had the presents under the tree. However I also learned just how much faith my mother had and that it was just not about Santa and the presents, but about Jesus and our Christian faith. All of these things molded who I am today and allow me to continue to see the beauty in this world even though it does get clouded with all that is around us from time to time. This time of year is a time for us to reflect on all that we have, to spend time with those that we love and to cherish every moment. It is not a surprise to me that my nana passed away shortly after Christmas from cancer when I was 18. I cannot think of a more beautiful time of year to peacefully leave this world.
As I look forward to Christmas this year and reflect on all that I have and the abundance of blessings in my life, I will remember that even without the lights, and Christmas carols and presents wrapped under the tree that the joy in my heart is something I can take with me throughout the year. That Christmas cheer can be an everyday occurrence.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale

New days ahead

So new things are all around me. The leaves are changing and my view from day to day has changed a bit as well. I have a fabulous man in my life, amazing friends, and family that is always there for me. My brothers engagement party was this weekend and we got to meet Sreela's parents who live in California. That was so wonderful, her mother Trina is an absolute delight. It is amazing to think that in May Sreela will be my sister. I get to see my baby brother get married, and it makes me so ridiculously happy! He has come a long way and I am so proud of him and his recent accomplishments.
I am working in Boston again or Cambridge to be more exact and although the commute is not the best in the world I feel really good about this decision and where it could lead. I think in general I am looking at life a lot differently and really wanting to enjoy each day and live to the fullest. I want to try and risk more and see where this path will lead me. I need to remind myself that I am in control of my life and of where I end up. Looking forward to the end of this year and the start of 2011, I am sure it will bring more amazing things my way!