I think that around this time every year I wonder to myself, wow that year went fast. 2015 is no exception. This has been a year filled with more than I could have imagined.

Admittedly, when I planned ahead in early January 2015, I didn’t a year like I’ve just had. But, this is the spice of life – if everything went according to plan, life would be a bit boring. And if there is one thing I strongly dislike it’s routine. So while, the bike stuff didn’t turn out exactly as I had envisioned, so many other fantastic things happened over this past year that it’s a real challenge to feel sorry for myself.

This is particularly the case when I open the newspaper or turn on the radio and learn more about the terrible things happening around the world and right here in Canada. Learning about the challenges and extremely hard times others are dealing with, really does give me a dose of perspective. This is why I’m going to plug to groups to you: the Parkdale Food Centre – I’ve been volunteering here since January and this food bank is doing amazing things for its community (donate via the Reverse Food Truck and sponsor a family or buy some bananas) and Feedfive – this is a group of friends who have been gathering together every month to cook and serve meals in their local homeless shelter, the Ray of Hope community centre in downtown Kitchener, ON (buy a t-shirt from feedfive, buying a t-shirt feeds five people).

So yeah, maybe I didn’t get to race the race I wanted and maybe there have been days when I’ve felt pretty rotten. But geez, I’ve got a nice house, a fridge full of food, and a good job… kind of hard to feel badly about this.

I’m looking forward to 2016, a year that will surely be filled with lots of great stuff, and most importantly, I hope to continue to get some good doses of perspective.