01/01/2026
This time of year is always about new beginnings, resolutions, stashing away the old and accepting the new. I ended the year at a beautiful retreat filled with wonderful food, beautiful weather, peaceful spa time and my son. I think back on the past year with fond memories, some answered prayers and dreams as well as unrealized ones. Now do I just make new ones, hold onto the old ones and wish, pray and hope all over again?
I have read a good book during this time, Before I Forget. Toward the end of the book there is a line that when something dies, something else needs to be reborn. We think about that regarding death and the cycle of life, but maybe we also need to think about it regarding dreams and hopes and prayers. All will not always work out exactly as we had hoped or dreamed, but maybe at this time of year and every day we just need to reset, to be grateful for the dreams that have been actualized, be hopeful for the wishes that have not been met and pray for new realities, adventures and possibilities.
I also try to remember that prayer is talking to God or your higher power and meditation is listening. Listen to your gut, listen to your child and listen to the child within you. I hope to be present and listen as I write and reflect on this New Year’s resolutions. I will think of all I have gained and be grateful for where I am, realized and unrealized dreams, hopes and prayers.
Sometimes, as this book also reminded me, heartbreak and healing can be intertwined. And that the best way out is through, through the pain, through the difficult conversations, through it all. “The truth is yours to divine. The future is yours to design.” May the New Year be a time of new beginnings, renewed hopes but also a time of reflection, and a reminder to love yourself, love others, be present with all that is around us and renew, rejoice, reset.
