Gratitude for 2025 & Serenity in 2026

 It is New Year's Eve. In less than 12 hours, it will be the start of a brand new year. I've made a tradition of either choosing a word of the year or creating a vision board for the past several years. In either 2019 or 2020, my word was GRACE. I was at a point in my life where I truly needed to show myself grace to get through the day-to-day of raising kids (2 in preschool at the time). In 2023, I chose VICTORY. That year, I did finally get victory over several things - my severe obesity, addiction to coping with hard feelings by drinking alcohol far too often, and victory in finding a new job. In 2024, I chose AUTHENTICITY. That was the year I published Out of the Fog, and started thinking about applying (again) to become a college professor. I also learned how to be authentically myself without apologizing for the way my decisions might affect others, if my intention and true authentic self knew why that was the right choice for me. In 2025, I did not choose a word, but instead created vision boards with Rylee (or did we do that to start out 2024?). But, looking back, 2025's unofficial year was PURPOSE. I am finally in a position where I know my career purpose (whether that means teaching one class a semester or five a semester at some point). So that brings us to today. The last day of 2025. The two words I was considering are PURPOSE and SERENITY. Since I feel like I already chased PURPOSE and even fulfilled it in a lot of ways in 2025, I am choosing SERENITY as my word for 2026. 

While there are definitely some sobriety connections to SERENITY, I am choosing it more for the definition below. A calm sense of peace. Protecting my peace has become a huge priority for me. I do not want to engage in drama or heightened emotions just for the sake of it. I want to live in my authentic trust, and surround myself with genuine people while pursuing my passion and purpose in life. That's what SERENITY means for me in 2026. 

Are you choosing a word of the year? What will it be? 

As we closed out 2025, we did take a stab at a new tradition in our household. The gratitude jar. It produced a few funny grateful sticky notes, and a lot of really heartfelt and memorable ones. I think this might be something we do every few years just to remind all of us to take a minute and be grateful. Have you done something like this with your family? If not, I highly suggest giving it a try. You need a jar of some sort, sticky notes, and a pen. I left ours out in a common area so it would hopefully remind people to write down their gratitude every so often. 

Now, for the biggest test. Try to read some of the writing on these notes!