Monday, January 1, 2018

On The Power of Reflection and Renewal

I can’t help but look up tonight. To patiently wait for the new year to sweep over me while the old one drifts away. I can’t help but reach up and try to touch all that awaits.


It was the year that took my soul and stretched it in a thousand different ways. My soul was molded it into something new.

It was the year defined by relationships and by grace.

It was the year in which I started to see my value; as a teacher, as a friend, as a mother and as a wife. I began to see that finding my way in this life is entirely possible. 

It was the year that I realized meeting people is better than chasing people and that my own opinion of myself matters more than someone else’s opinion of me.

It was the year I discovered what is truly worth fighting for and it was the year I realized that one of those things was me.


It was the year I made some beautiful new friends that are clearly meant to be in my life. I also found peace and grace in letting go of relationships that I had high hopes for but, for reasons that are beyond me, will never bring positivity to my life. 


It was the year of walking through my family’s challenges and my family’s pain...and my family’s renewal. We looked heartache and resentment and lies right in the face. We felt uncomfortable in the conversations but we grew and learned the most profound lessons. 


We learned that LOVE ALWAYS wins. 

We learned that there is nothing that we can’t solve when we are together in love and honesty. 

It was the year of heart wrenching obstacles and unexpected joy.

It was the year of bright, new futures and painfully hard pasts.


It was…the very essence of life.


I think there are often times when we desperately wait for the day to come when we can bid farewell to the moments that brought us to our knees. We want to shut the doors and turn our backs and close our eyes. And that’s okay. But before we do that, let’s not forget what it all means…

We did it.

We endured and we surpassed and we survived and we conquered and we fought and we climbed and we reached and most of all…we lived.

The year may have been hard for some of us. The year may have been more than expected for some of us. The year may have been an immense struggle for some of us.

But please, my beautiful, resilient, strong tribe, please refuse to let this last night pass without recognizing what the year has shown you…


You were stronger.


We all were.


Tonight, may you breathe deep. May you love hard. May you wish well. 


May you look up as a new year passes through time and may you always let it remind you that whatever came your way this past year, you came at it with even more.


<3