Welcoming 2025
At the end of 2023, I looked toward 2024 with uncertainty. I wasn’t sure what would happen with school, where I was going with candidacy, and what the future held for my family. It turns out 2024 brought a fair share of challenges and triumphs. This year taught me so much about resilience, gratitude, and community. I finished my final academic credits for seminary, I got pregnant and gave birth to another beautiful baby boy, and I was endorsed by my candidacy committee, allowing me to move forward toward an internship. I was also incredibly sick for the majority of my pregnancy. And once John was born, it was apparent that my mental health was suffering. I spent 2024 trying to hold onto the person, the mom, the wife, the friend, the daughter, the sister I knew I could be.
As I enter 2025, I’m feeling pensive. There’s sadness and hope for the new year as I anticipate all the changes. John will start attending daycare, which means no more lazy days cuddling my baby all day. I will start an internship, pulling us away from our church home at Grace and introducing us to a life in ministry. And there’s so much that I can’t anticipate.
Instead of pushing past these feelings, I’m working to honor them. I’m reminding myself I can hold space for joy and sorrow. For hope and loss. I can remember and celebrate the past while also moving forward and creating a new story. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay not to be okay. The moment we are in is temporary; time is endless. And we are all part of a beautiful creation, moving towards love.
Here’s to 2025, whatever it may hold.
to holding memories and hope.
to more time outside.
to raising my boys.
to moving my body in ways that feel good.
to more dates with my husband.
to sunshine.
to more dinners with friends.
to dancing in the rain.
to reading more books, coloring more pictures, and doing more writing.
to snow angels.
to community.
to self-advocacy.
to trust.
to celebrating myself.
to showing up.
to being my own leader.
to feeling all the emotions.
to therapy.
to growth and change.
to creating.
to vulnerability.
to living guided by values.