Wanted to make an announcement, I have paid off one of my credit cards!!!  YIPPPEEEE!!!!

Since doing that I started looking at my life around me.  Thinking how happy I truly am with the clothes I still have and not thinking that I need to purchase more.  My closet full of clothes tells me, you have enough, Kate.  I decided that I am going to clean out my closet and get rid of all the junk that I have kept throughout my years on this earth.  From high school memorabilia, old T-shirts I never wear, CDs(what are those), tons of papers and books I kept from college, all these things don't make up who I am.  They are things I purchased or accomplished for a purpose and should have thrown them in the bin after that chapter in my life.  Alas I am QUEEN of the pack rats.  I need to keep things I will need for a specific purpose.  Once I move my whole self to Florence, I will not need these things here in my old room lying around.  There is just no need or use for them anymore. 

So my new Mantra is Less is More, much More.  I am going to narrow my wardrobe down, my foot wear, and get rid of all things unnecessary to keep in my parent's home.  Things that I will bring with my to Florence are:

1. Bodyflow and all bodyflow equipment
2. Journals with all my thought over the years
3. My computer, of course
4. Italian books for translating purposes for me and English books for teaching
5. Photos of Family
6. My camera, of course
7. Then it comes down to my clothes, and other necessities of moving, luggage and so forth.

Well I feel great, really.  I know that each and every day that passes I am getting closer to being in Florence for good and to keep my love  growing, I try(so hard) not to dwell on the fact that I am not there now.  My dear friend Laura arrived back in Florence a fews days ago after a long visit with family over the holidays.  I was very jealous of her and the fact that she has her citizenship and I am still hanging on here without it in my possession.  It makes me upset and angry with myself that I never applied for British citizenship sooner.  Being the self-critizing person I am, I have trouble moving past that.  As I know this isn't the right time for me to fly by the seat of my pants back to Florence(like I always do) and get wrapped up with being there when I can't possibly be.  The universe has many other lessons for me here.  I have learned that friendships really come and go.  You can't always count on the people who you thought were your good friends to be there when you come back from a place you loved so dearly.  Friends, in general, these days, seem to be more content with themselves and not caring about others.  And sadly I can't change how each one treats another.  I can't be that friend to them.  I can't be what they want.  On the other hand, life is constantly bringing new people into our lives.  We should celebrate that as well.  When I think back to my high school and college years, I remember being surrounded by all different groups of people.  Having a friend for fun, for talk, for playing soccer.  They all had a purpose.  I thought life was always going to be that way, friends all around but that isn't the case.  I never thought I would be where I am now, without anyone I can really count on but my family.  No one prepared me for this reality.  Then the lesson from my mom...

"You must be happy with yourself, no one else can make you happy but you."

Yes in fact, she is right.  Sticking with Less is More, less things, less friends, less worries, less everything.  The simple things in our lives should bring us to a place of wonderment and peace each day.  A place where we know who we are without being praised or judged by others, peers. No need to obtain constant satisfaction from something or someone.  As I never wanted to be praised constantly among friends, I just wanted them to be there for me as equally as I was there for them.  However I have realized I don't even need that anymore.  I have my family, myself to be there for me.   

After watching and becoming addicted to Sex and the City, I thought my life could and would be like Carrie's.  Having her 4 close girlfriends around her whenever she needed something, they were there.  Alas, that is just TV, real life is not like that.  The only difference I foresee is that my friends living in Florence, have a different type of bond with me.  I know whatever happens I could count on some, not all, of them.  That is a wonderful confidence purely in that.  Knowing that you could count on someone, but right inside yourself is your own confidence, that says:

"hey, we are going to be ok."

Know that life is full of lessons both big and very, very small.  I have learned a very, very small lesson that turned into a bigger one.

Have you ever thought about what you could rid your life of to make it simpler and happier?

a presto amici!