Happy New Year My Friends...

It is now 2025 and I want to wish you a Happy New Year. Happiness, the feeling of joy and contentment, is my hope for you in the coming year. But, we all know that it’s just not realistic to have a year with nothing but happiness.

This year, in general, when you disappoint yourself, be kind to yourself. Remember that the only person who hears your inner monologue about yourself is you. We are our own worst critics. I wish that this year brings an end to your critical inner voice and the beginning of you saying nice, positive, kind things to yourself. When others disappoint you, remember that they are struggling too in ways you may never quite understand or know about. Even in the darkest world, people still are worthy of forgiveness, and if they aren’t worthy, may this be the year you let them go.

There will be struggles, some big and some small. Do not beat yourself up about the small stuff. Believe it or not, they happen for a reason. You can rant about them, laugh about them, be sarcastic about them. Whatever it takes. And for the big struggles, the soul crushing ones, I wish that you somehow find the strength to ask for help. You’re not a burden, to anyone. I may not have answers either, but what I can do, every single time, is share the burden with you. We can figure it out together. And if not, we can sit together with the weight of the thing until it feels less frightening. We will drink wine, and we may cry. We will most likely laugh.

Some of you will experience health problems and loss. I know that each day really brings so many families health issues. Some of you will face a continued challenge of your own health, while some will stand helplessly by and suffer through your child’s health. Others will see your parents lose their battles with the dreaded combination of age and declining health. Some of you, will unthinkably face another year, another day, another hour where you are without your child who has left this life way too soon. To each of you a “happy” new year seems like a tough wish to send. So, I wish you courage. To get up every single day and find some way to exist in your feelings of uncertainty, fear, and heart searing loss. Courage to find hope in the future and warmth in memories, to let others in and help you get through it.

Friendships are the most incredible gifts that life has to offer. With all of the struggles, disappointments, and losses, our friendships sustain us. They offer us a place of respite, a place where we can be ourselves fully and be truly loved and accepted for who we really are without judgement. I have experienced loss, and you have been there for me. You have offered me a mirror to see myself the way you see me. You have listened. You have made me laugh. You have wiped my tears.

Happy New Year, my friends. No matter what this year brings to you, I will be there for you. And I know you will do the same.

Love,

Nikki