By Bonnie Brown

Columnist

Welcome 2025!  We say goodbye to 2024 and do a reset for the new year.  So, how was 2024 for you?  Did the good outweigh the bad?  Remember when we started this decade in 2020 with Covid?  In some ways, it seems that we have continued to face challenges since then.  There are wars, there have been natural disasters, and the state of our Union is challenging.  The recent headlines and news would have you believe that our country is morally bankrupt, and people are fundamentally “bad.”  

Yet, we are hopeful—yes, even optimistic that the ship will right itself (with a little help) and we have reason to be optimistic about our future.  If only we could get Mother Nature on board and ask that she not present us with storms, floods, fires, and other disasters.  

The beginning of a new year often brings with it our declarations to lose weight, to be more fiscally responsible, to do more volunteering, to model compassion, to be more patient.  Yet, we realize even when we are making those New Year resolutions that they will likely be short-lived.  Our resolutions are not limited to a new calendar year.  There’s always more than one chance for a fresh start—a new moon, a birthday, anniversary, or even the beginning of a new week.  I would suggest that each of us vow to be more mindful each day for all that we have and express gratitude.     

In truth, we should adjust our thinking to remembering all the things for which we should be grateful.  I know that sounds pretty easy, but it really isn’t.  We get mired down in our own misery and/or lack of self-awareness.  But in truth, we live in a country, while not perfect, offers to most of us all the creature comforts and reassurance that we can safely go about our daily lives with food and shelter surrounded by our family and friends.  

I’m reminded of a quote “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  It sounds so simple and yet how many of us are consciously grateful each day?  If each of us looked for things to be grateful for, we would truly live a more joyous life.  Think about how you feel when you are grateful for some small act of kindness—someone holding the door for you, your spouse taking out the garbage, someone complimenting you.  The same is also true when someone acknowledges your intentional acts of kindness.  How many times during the day do you perform intentional acts of kindness?

So, as we bid farewell to 2024, let’s embrace all the positives that 2025 has to offer.  The feeling of a fresh start, the excitement that new technology brings to our everyday life, the opportunity to improve ourselves, and the feeling that we are each contributing to a better way of life for all.  

I make this toast to you :  “May each sunrise of the new year bring you hope, and each sunset bring you peace.” (Author unknown)