Like a tiny newborn babe, the New Year is just nine days old, full of possibilities and opportunities. I spent a lot of time this past Christmas season just trying to figure out what day it was! But, I have also been doing a lot of reading and thinking about the now well-worn path I have been traveling for the past three years. I’ve found myself doing a lot of soul searching and discerning just what direction it is that I want to steer this ship aptly named, The Rest of My Life. I’ve spent a good share of the time since Brian died navigating the treacherous waters of the Sea of Grief. I’ve gotten lost in the fog; struggled to hold on and keep the ship afloat when the waves crashed over the sides, careening across the deck and threatening to sweep me overboard. I’ve stopped and put down anchor at unfamiliar places that appeared along the way, hoping to find at least a portion of what I was looking for . . . without truly knowing what that “something” was. During each of those stops, I’ve met many interesting people. People who I’d never have met had I not (unwillingly) set forth on this journey of loss and confusion, with no map, no compass, and often not even so much as a North Star to guide me. I have come to know and love people who have become important to the ME I am now. Looking back, I see how each person who has touched my life these past three years has played a role in helping me find my way to where I’ve landed today. I am — a person forever changed. I have grown wiser; am grateful for the little things. I have learned to look forward to second chances with a renewed joy, and appreciation for the opportunity to live, laugh, love, and make a difference in my little corner of the world.

I’ve always collected favorite quotes. Some speak volumes to me. Some make me cry. Now just seems like a good time to share some of them with you. They remind me that my feelings of sadness, confusion, and uncertainty after losing Brian are not unique; that others before me have felt the same. They speak to my heart as well as my mind, and give me the strength to keep on living and loving life. I hope they bring peace and hope to you in this New Year of wondrous possibilities, and that you also make 2024 “the year that you come back”!

~”The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.”

W. Sommerset Maughan

~”Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.”

Hans Christian Anderson

~”Don’t be afraid to take big steps. You can’t cross a chasm in to small jumps.”

David Lloyd Judge

~”Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”

Urusla K. Le Guin

~”In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Albert Einstein

~”The highest motive is to be like water: Water is essential to all living things, yet demands no pay or recognition. Rather, it flows humbly to the lowest level. Nothing it weaker than water; yet for overcoming what is hard and strong, nothing surpasses it.”

RAO-TE- CHING

~”The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”

Joseph Addison

~Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

~Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Rainer Maria Rilke

~Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.

Anonymous

~What happens to us is less important than what we make of what happens to us.

Anonymous

~The fact that nothing lasts is the reason everything matters.

Anonymous