Happy New Year 2021

Yet another year has drawn to a close. This was a year of such turmoil for everyone the world over. Many people battled loneliness, despair, fear, hatred, and exhaustion. Doing any task felt like an endeavor, and people's resources—financial, mental, physical—were stretched thin. Some people thrived in solitude and discovered familial closeness and joy. Some, like me, suffered great heartbreak. My mantra for the past year was Samuel Beckett's quote: "I can’t go on. I’ll go on."

All we can say about 2020 is that we each got through the year to the best of our abilities. We survived. We managed. We coped.

And now, I look to the dawn of a new year with hope and with gratitude. I am here. I matter. And I'm going to set foot in the new year with intention. My words for this year are: Grace & Hope & Laughter, and I hope to shape the coming days with those in mind.

I did a fair bit of reading last year on solitude and resilience, and I'd like to carry these two quotes by philospher Maria Popova into the new year with me:

"Build pockets of stillness into your life. Seek out what magnifies your spirit."

"Be Like a Tree: May we face the coming year with the steady serenity of a tree—that supreme lover of light, always reaching both higher and deeper, rooted in a network of kinship and ringed by a more patient view of time."

Whatever may be your way of thinking of the new year, my wish for you, dear readers, is that it brings you happiness, because after all, what can be a better measure of success than happiness?