One of the exercises this past month in my coaching group has been centered on the practice of celebrating our successes and recognizing our accomplishments. To that end I've been writing down the things I accomplish. It is a worthy practice for me and one I will continue after our practice in the coaching group ends. Here is something I wrote tonight.

I realized while home that seeing the family dog aging brings to the forefront my family's mortality and my only-child status. Just writing that makes my eyes well up. While I realize that not everyone who has siblings would say it is preferable to being an only child the thought that there is a good chance that the people I love dearly who brought me into this world will pass away and I will be left all alone makes me sad and scares me. I list this as an accomplishment not because I'm grasping at straws (okay maybe a little), but because I think this is very important for me come to terms with and to impact and change my life in ways where I can enjoy these people and my relationships with them rather than to look back with regret and realize I took it all for granted and it is too late to do anything about it. Sometimes just taking that all in feels like too much to deal with.