What word did you choose and why?

Peace

I chose the word Peace. I want to feel more grounded in my faith, but also in how I take care of myself. If I can hold on to peace in the hard moments, I can continue to show up and help others. I no longer want to give up my peace.

It’s been a rough several years. Now I’m at a point where personally, and even a little bit professionally too, I just want to find Peace. I want to be more grounded not just in my faith, but in self-care and start working toward my own goals as well. I have some big personal goals, and while I don’t feel like I’m quite in the headspace to start working on those yet, I’ve started working on smaller steps to get closer to that. I’ve also started a grief share program, using my own story grieving the loss of my mother to help others find peace in their grief journeys. I’ve become more involved in my church and I’m really loving the Peace I am finding there too. If I can find the inner Peace I’m striving for and hold on to it in the hard moments, and remember that God will take care of and work through the big things, I can continue to help more people because that is just who I am.

            If I could share a piece of advice with my two daughters that they hold close throughout their own life challenges, I’d say to find and surround yourself with good people. Good people are how you make it through the hard things in life. The people who find it more important to be interested instead of interesting are the ones you want.