Doing the new year differently

by Elizabeth Rago

Happy New Year! This is our visual for 2020. Skipping down the road with a friend, clicking heels, being free, and living.

There are challenges ahead - always - but what's different about us is that we're ready for the change. We've struggled around the same mountains of stress and anxiety over and over and over and over again - and we're sick of it.

2020 means gathering up all that living, all that happy, all that heartbreak - and adding it to a big strong box, closing the lid, and stepping on top of it to stand higher.

This box is a safe place where all those experiences and laughter and tears and horror are kept, not to forget, but to bolster our hearts and rally our spirits to prove to OURSELVES that we've SURVIVED.

From now on, not just in the next year - we're doing it differently. "It" meaning everything. We're doing breathing differently and decision-making, even what to add to our coffee in the morning, DIFFERENTLY.

We have boundaries from now on, and we're practicing patience - knowing that what we're praying for will take time and a repeating of new habits to get to our desired destination.

And while we're waiting on our dreams and expectations - we're keeping ourselves busy loving others and establishing a peaceful home and heart. Appreciating ourselves as women and giving ourself the much-needed break we've felt too guilty to honor before.

We've tasted a bit of peace and we're ready for more. We hunger for it and want it daily. And though the storms will come - and oh, will they ever - we open the box we stand on to remind ourselves that no matter what - we've come so far and lived to tell the story. Each and every one of us is strong and passionate and full of a powerful vision.

Ladies, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart, YOU are the reason this community is here. I don't know what the future holds but I am confident that, no matter what and no matter where we are in the world, we're holding each other in our hearts.

And that gives me great joy, peace, and hope.

So much love, Elizabeth Rago