Lol.

Growing up, my family and I used to take a moment before every new year to state our resolutions. Something about saying them out loud to each other made us feel accountable for working towards them for the rest of the year. At the next eve of the new year, we would (try) to remember them and sometimes even share if we felt like we made progress towards them. And of course, we would add a few more that felt timely or motivating for the year ahead.

Now, as an adult (I claim that title lightly), I love taking the time each year to introspect and set intentions that guide me for the next 365 days. This year, as I started writing, my introspection turned into recognizing all that I’m thankful for. Simple things, but things that are so easy to take for granted until life reminds you that they are, in fact, the most important things. So rather than resolutions, I made a list of what I am thankful for - as a reminder to come back to – and a list of what I’m hopeful for as I head into 2022.

- I am thankful for time. Time to have with family, friends, and loved ones. Time to sit with myself and think and reflect. Time to do absolutely nothing at all.

- I am thankful for the ability to move my body, to exercise my mind, to breathe fresh air. I really believe that movement is medicine. It literally is for my body that has so many little challenges (thank you to everyone who supported me in my lactaid journey this year- your reminders to take it before I ate a cheese pizza were truly saviors!) that are only tolerable when I move my body daily. I also recognize that the ability to move freely and easily and often is truly a blessing.  

- I am thankful for my health. My health. My health. My health. And for the power that I currently have, in my very own hands, to maintain it. Because you just never know when it may no longer be in your hands, and that realization has changed the way I think about things like eating well and exercising. I GET to do those things. I get to sleep for 7 hours every night, I get to take care of my skin, I get to drink water, I get to choose to eat food that’s good for me (ok and the occasional sweet treat, because balance). How lucky am I?

- I am thankful for the privilege and ownership to work. To have a career. To pursue dream roles. Searching for a job, as a qualified and ambitious individual, at the start of a global pandemic will shake your confidence down to your very core. So I am SO thankful for the dream job that I get to wake up and do every day. (Don’t get me wrong, I love vacation too, if the Boy is reading this!).

- Moving forward into the new year, I hope for the space and time to be creative again. To invest in the ‘other stuff’, personal passions. If these past two years taught me anything, its that the ‘other stuff’ is exactly what motivates me even on the hardest days.

- I want to feel hopeful again. That attitude of eternal optimism used to come easily to me, used to feel like a part of my personality. Now I have to work to feel it. To manifest it the way I used to with every thought, so easily, so inherently. As I read through the resolutions and intentions of so many for 2022, I realized I am not alone in this feeling that its become harder to find those moments of joy, gratitude, hope. I guess we have to recognize the toll it takes on the human body and mind, to be in a global pandemic that effected every moment and action of our lives for many years. Not to mention the never ending news of death, losing loved ones, disease. But the mere fact that so many of us want that again, well that gives me hope.

- I want to return to the office! I know this one is controversial. I am not necessarily hoping to return to the office 5 days a week. The flexibility of working from the comfort of home, to workout, eat at regular hours during the work day, to not have to pencil in time for a commute, to be in pjs even if you are ‘camera on’ at your job, and so on…it is marvelous. But I miss the cleaner definition of home and work. I yearn for the opportunity for IRL interaction with the colleagues that we all spend so much time with everyday- in the hallway at work, on the way to pick something up for lunch, in a meeting room, hell, on the same subway line home jammed up against a stranger while trying to have a conversation (I am going to hear about this one when the Boy sees my Uber bills, once we are commuting again).

- I hope to feel present in every moment. I hope to feel and live in every moment. To acknowledge all I have to be grateful for in the moment. I know I spent the last two years saying to myself ‘when this is over’ or ‘when we can travel again’ or ‘when I have a reason to get dressed up again’- I was living for what was next. But the reality is, you never really know what is going to happen next and when, so I want to live for the moment I am in.

So I end with this- a quote that I felt down to the very core of my being:

‘One life. Just one. Why aren’t we running- like we are on fire- towards our wildest dreams?’ – Jim Kwik