There is a quote I keep coming back to as I unpack the highs and lows of this past year.

“There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.”

Zora Neale Hurston

2024 asked a lot of questions.

…have the best years of my life already passed me by?
…does the love I seek to find even exist?
…how will I go on living when my dog dies?
…am I happy here?

I discovered new depths of joy and new depths of grief.
There were beginnings.
There were ends.
Some days I was full of hope.
Other days I was filled with dread.
I entered a new decade.
I excelled at work.
I built new relationships.
I went on bad dates.
I kissed my friends.
And I did my best to heal the broken parts.

I walked into this year with defeat in my heart. A heart full of cracks and holes and jagged edges where love used to live.

But I think I have the cracks to thank for letting a new kind of light in.

And I’m walking out of this year with a group of friends who have become family.

To know friendship like that is a pure and priceless gift.

There is nothing that will lift you out of the pits of hell and heartbreak like friends who climb into the trenches with you and do whatever it takes to make sure the light gets in.

Broken parts or not, I wouldn’t trade what I gained this year for anything that I lost.

“No matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss. Sometimes wonderfully.”

Unknown

Thank you for dropping everything to be on the next flight out, and hugging me on street corners, and delivering the best jokes as I sobbed in my kitchen.

How lucky am I?
How wonderful.