My wish for all of us.

I originally wrote this for myself though my daughter Meredith encouraged me to put it out there, here goes!

I was just scrolling through my newsfeed and all kinds of 2023 planning and hopeful articles were appearing. There is something about a new year that gets us all a bit more optimistic about ourselves.?As disciplined as I try to be with my life, I catch myself daydreaming about a better version of myself.?These past few years have been challenging to say the least.?When Covid hit I found myself in an unfamiliar place with my career.?Being self employed there is an element of control that is often driven by fear though nonetheless you feel a bit more powerful than others.?Covid took that away for me.?For the first time in 27 years, I would begin many days wondering what bad thing could happen.?Instead of giving into the doubt, I decided to put my head down and work harder.?I’ve always had an strong work ethic, probably due to my upbringing, though I found myself in a different drive.?In hindsight, it was just my way of controlling the uncontrollable though honestly not sustainable.?To keep up the pace I had to have more energy.?I decided to up my game of working out- a rowing machine, weight training and I got back to running.?From the outside, it would appear that I had figured it out.?The business was thriving despite a global pandemic and my husband and kids still loved me.?Though something was missing.

I’ve been so focused on what might happen to my business that I’ve forgotten how to live in the moment.?I’m not saying that I haven’t been present.?In fact, this past year, I was present in so many work activities, trips with my kids, two 80th birthday parties and outings with family and friends. Looking back, it was too much- I was just trying too hard.?I think I finally felt a bit freer and had to get out though the pace was so fast I couldn’t really enjoy it.

It's hard when you’re on a fast-moving train to think about slowing down or even changing direction.?The momentum it took to get to that point was so hard- why would you change?

I know there are others who feel like me.?I can see it on the zoom calls, in LinkedIn posts and those rare conversations I have face to face with people when they let down their guard.?There is so much pain out there right now.?There is no work accomplishment, family trip or new workout goal that can fill what we all really need- HIM.?I didn’t used to speak so openly about my belief though I feel like we all have to.?HE is looking for a relationship with all of us and just a quick scroll through all the hurt in the world only strengthens my case.

We went to very small church in Destin Florida for Christmas Mass.?The priest was talking about the “moments or means” in our life.?It is so easy to go through the motions thinking that gets us to our end. He was challenging us all that Heaven is really the ONLY goal of this life.?It's not easy to think about that day in and day out.?We have jobs, families, mortgages, health problems, aging parents, disappointments and the list goes on. There’s also a lot of time in a day, week, month and year.?Though looking back at 2022, gosh the years are going faster.

So here’s my wish for all of us for 2023:

Let’s be intentionally and purposefully focused on the steps we all need to take to get to Heaven and not be distracted or disenchanted by the unfulfilling accomplishments of this life.?We have a whole new year to try.