Reminders

Today was a good day. There was a little tiff with some of my family members earlier in the week. My niece who I am very close with had an argument with my brother (her uncle) and some things were said that hurt her feelings. I won't ramble on about it but my parents, her mother and myself all became involve and the entire incident was blown out of proportion. My niece lives in Indiana and is here with us for a couple weeks and she also has other family members to visit. She ended up leaving my parents house, with whom she was staying with, and went to her other aunts house and was determined to stay their the rest of the week because she didn't want to be around my brother. I was able to discuss the entire issue with her today and helped her to realize that it's not okay to run from her problems. Apologies were made between everyone and now she is with my parents. This entire event helped me realize that as human beings we simply run on our own emotions and how we feel without considering the feelings of others. We dwell on our own emotions and become so selfish that we forget the realities of the problem at hand and we don't consider the options we have to handle ourselves properly. It's so easy to point the finger and judge others. We allow ourselves to become so consumed with other peoples issues when really, the way others live their lives has no affect on how we live ours on a daily basis. If we torment, and judge others for the decisions they've made, talk negatively behind their backs, are we any better than they are? These past 3 days have really made me think about how childish human beings can be.
Anyway. I took my niece and nephew shopping today. They are going back home on Thursday. We were in American Eagle (my favorite store) and found myself looking at things to buy for myself when really I had every intention on spending my money on them. I had to remind myself that I don't need this dress that was so pretty and would look so nice to wear. And it was on sale so that makes it even better to buy! It's starting to sink in. Not buying anything that is simply a want and not a necessity. I didn't buy the dress. I'm proud of myself, don't get me wrong, but what I'm most proud of is simply enjoying time with my family and spoiling them. Today they helped me realized that you don't need to spend money to have fun. Although I did buy them some things, I think I might have made them feel like they needed to find something for me to buy them because I thought it would make them happy. Money isn't everything and material things aren't everything. Those things are replacable. Family and memories you make with them are not. My niece and nephew reminded me how humble they are when they kept telling me "You don't need to buy us anything. We're happy with just walking around."
It's going to be a tough year. I hope I didn't set my goals too high. But I'll be optimistic in the sense that maybe my goals will be a way of.....cleansing. Starting over. Re-creating my universe.