The Promise of a New Year

The hope for new beginnings and fresh starts takes root in the reflection of what we've learned.

A new year often conjures up a notion that we are leaving behind an old year, with old habits, mistakes and not so happy moments to begin again and move forward with the new… new commitments, resolutions, intentions, focus, mindset, hopes, dreams, goals, attitudes, behaviors, missions, determination and ALL the things that we hope to do better in a new, untarnished year.

Sometimes we take the time to pause and reflect on the year we are leaving behind. We find comfort in the moments that brought us joy, the celebrations of milestones and achievements and the lessons learned. The year 2020 has been unlike any other. When we reflect on this past year, there has been struggle, loss, grief, despair, anxiety, stress, change, hardship of varying degrees for each of us; AND, there has been incredible determination, fortitude, strength, creativity, adaptability, care, kindness and hope.

As much as we’d like to forget 2020 or see it disappear in our proverbial rear-view mirror – it has taught us much about meaning, care and connection. It has taught us valuable lessons in the importance of taking time to pause and reflect. It offered us time with our family, friends and partners in a manner we didn’t imagine nor would we have previously taken as the busy-ness of our lives revolved. It has been hard and sometimes even felt impossible. Yet through every hardship and every obstacle, there is also perseverance. There are neighbors and communities working to help and support one another. It is a time of recognizing a shared circumstance that despite our physical distance, we are all connected by experience and the actions of others. It is a time to shift our perspective on what is hard and uncomfortable… and, turn our focus to our strength, our connection and what it means to be human in all of its joy and complexity.

May the new year take the best of what we’ve learned in 2020 and remind us of all that is possible and the precious value of each moment. May we reflect on how we’ve grown and the pain of that growth. May we lean in to adversity with compassion for others. May 2021 find us caring more deeply, understanding one another more fully and looking for the opportunities of what’s to come. We will come together again with profound appreciation for what we’ve lost and tremendous hope for the time when our heart’s connection can once again welcome our personal, physical connection.