I'm feeling a little contemplative today, maybe because it's my birthday. I wonder if I've been good at seizing each moment and living life to the fullest...all that. I think I've done pretty well - I can make a list of some really cool things I've been fortunate enough to do:

• Work in a natural history museum
  
• Lived in a foreign country (Iceland)
• I was profiled as an American kid on Icelandic television!
  
• Sailed up and down the west coast of the US and Mexico in my sailboat
• Saw a humpback whale breach less than 500 feet from my boat!
• Weathered some pretty impressive storms with freaking big waves
  
• Expanded my "horizons" by living all over the US - I've seen sunrises emerging from the Atlantic and sunsets retreating into the Pacific
  
• Held wild birds in my hand (mist-netted for a MAPS assessment)
• Experienced one of the world's global hotspots for diversity looking for salamanders in the southern Appalachain mountains
• Qualified for the Boston marathon
• Been somewhat competitive as an age-group triathlete
  

I should probably keep adding to that list to remind myself how great life is. I have family members and friends that struggle with health and other issues. I realize that life is dictated by random events, at times, but also careful planning and decisions. I have been fortunate with some things, such as my health, but have also made conscious decisions that have helped me end up where I am today. Not all decisions have been "sound" in all ways, of course...I wish I had no student loans, but I am incredibly happy with the career I am in (compared to where I was before I went back for another degree and graduate school). All those what if's and ponderings of what might have been if I had done something different! Everything is a compromise, I suppose - it all comes back to our attitude (echoes of my mom...brilliant woman).