This is my hope for each of us, unless you are one of those people who follow through with their New Year’s resolutions. (In those cases, I hope your achieved resolutions bring joy to cover the troubles life throws your way.)

For the rest of us, I hope your troubles don’t last. Looking into the new year I find my stomach tied in knots with anticipation. It is much like waiting for the roller coaster to start moving after watching a movie where it crashes. I feel like I’m filled with darkness waiting for more challenges to have to overcome. Very, very deep inside me I have this sparkle of remembrance back to December of 2019. The year 2020 stretched out before me, it was clean and fresh feeling. I had just started grad school and a solid grasp on life, with nothing but hope running through me.

Then 2020 actually hit and well, we know what happened. My point is that each new year we are faced with a moment. Will we see the new year as a challenge to get buried under or 365 new opportunities for joy, hope, forgiveness, love, compassion, mercy, and life?

Troubles, barriers, challenges, and darkness do exist and I am feeling smothered by my fair share but I found that tiny sparkle from 2019 and I’m choosing to nurture it. This twinkle will light my way through the darkness I’ve felt in the last two years.

Troubles may come but they don’t last. Find your tiny sparkle, nurture it, grow it, and spread it. Resolutions rarely last but we can carry on regardless. Welcome to a New Year and all the new opportunities that await!

Sarah Deats

Sarah Deats is the Arizona Outpatient Support Services Manager at RI International and the Hope Inc. Stories Inspiration Engineer. Her goals are to make a connection with everyone that she can while building community, spreading hope, and sparking change. She believes that while life may not be easy, it is never lived alone.