Looking forward, looking inward

The Christmas season has always been a reflective time for me. The songs that play, the spirit of the season in abundance, and memories combine to inspire a sentimental mood. 

I was raised Catholic and the Jesus story was fundamental to our Christmas traditions. Christmas eve always included midnight mass and a walk to church on quiet, and often cold, streets. It is the traditional Christmas songs that have the strongest emotional connection for me, probably because of these formative years. But there are other secular songs that capture slices of my journey with Christmas, "Driving Home for Christmas" by Chris Rea, "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and "My Grown-Up Christmas List" by Natalie Cole among them. 

As I scroll down my Spotify playlist, a couple of songs that really speak to me include "Make Room" by Casting Crows. The lyric is there room in your heart for God to write his story resonates deeply. Ella Fitzgerald's "The Secret of Christmas" communicates a truth we should all embrace: the secret of Christmas is not the things you do at Christmas time, but the Christmas things you do all year through.

We are going to start 2025 with a creative and philanthropic 25 Day Painting Challenge. Each day for 25 days, I'm going to set aside a portion of my day to create a portrait. Heather is thinking of doing the same. These paintings will be sold to raise money to give the gifts of hope and HOME to an impoverished family in Cambodia with the charity Bracelets For Buildings. I'm hoping to be able to announce some matching partners before the challenge begins. Together we can start the New Year by creating significant  and exponential impact and positive energy.

The year that will soon be in the rearview mirror was challenging. We learned a lot of lessons going through a building process. The phrase "If I only knew then what I know now" holds a lot of meaning for both us having weathered the ups and downs of building our home and studio. We were ignorant of a lot of things and we will head into 2025 having to mitigate several mistakes that were made along the way. We are also anticipating a significant investment with the installation of solar panels in 2025.

As I look inward, I want to be intentional about not spiralling in the New Year. The stress of the challenges that we faced in the last two years have caused me to emotionally spiral several times. I want to focus on trusting the process and the belief that all will be well.