Me peering around the corner: 2021? Please come in. Sit down over there and don’t touch anything.

Though our celebrations may look a little different this year, we take the time to celebrate the passing of one year and welcoming a new one.

There is no doubt that 2020 has been a challenging year. It was fraught with disappointments and frustrations, but it has also been a time when we can slow down and take in all the things around us that we may have been taking for granted as we ran around in our work-a-day lives of old. And by “of old”, I of course mean, 2019. lol

Here’s to all the books you may have read, to the gardening and “Honey-Do” to-do lists you may have accomplished, and to the many glorious naps you may have taken – perhaps for the first time in years.

To the joys and pains of having partners and/or kids home all year, to the love of pets being under foot all day, and to the moments you had to yourself. To laugh, to cry, to think, to rediscover what we are about, at the core of us.

The joy of knowing I didn’t have to travel 2 hours in a rain or snowstorm before first light in order to get to work, while also acknowledging others did not have that luxury – my husband included – and appreciating them for the work they did and continue to do, “out there”.

For me this year has been marked by creative spurts and slumps, overflowing inspiration and frustrating, vacant nothingness. On a personal level, quiet, loving moments and searing, painful heartbreak.

2020 has put us through the ringer, and I am not sad to see it go. But I am not naïve enough to think that with the turning of a calendar page, with the moving hands of a clock we are reset back to what life used to be. And I’m not sure it should be.

We learned a lot this year and we stood up for each other and supported one another, and that sense of community should continue. We need to stay dedicated to keeping each other safe and healthy, economically, physically, and structurally.

Most of all, take time to do the things, the little things that make you happy on a daily basis. Take a walk, plant a garden, cook something super yummy, learn something new, or take a nap. Get to know you. Your sense of self and of fulfilment will translate to everything you do.

Let us ease into this new year cautiously optimistic about the great big things, and wholly optimistic about the light you will bring.

I believe in us. I believe in You!

I wish you all the very best the New Year can bring!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!