Like many of you, I couldn’t be happier to see 2021 end. It was a tough year for so many of us. For me, it brought a geographic move, a divorce after 22 years of marriage, COVID isolation, starting a new business venture (Dog Lovers Guru), moving away from old friends and meeting new ones, and a nightmare renovation project that drained my bank account and my faith in human decency. For all of those reasons and more, it was also a lonely Christmas.
Yet also like you, I don’t have to look very hard to find things to be grateful for. I didn’t get COVID! Mercifully, I didn’t lose anyone to that horrible virus. I have beautiful souls to call my friends, even if not many of them are living near me. And I have Beau, my handsome sidekick. My ever-abiding, funny, happy, snuggly, rub-my-tummy friend. He will be two years old sometime in the next couple of weeks. What would I have done without him this past year? It’s truly inconceivable. I bet you feel that way about someone in your life, furry or not. So much to be grateful for even in a hard year.
So what awaits us all in 2022? Seems harder to say than most years. I’m not sure that I even remember what “normal” is, assuming there is such a thing. I don’t usually make New Year resolutions, but I do try to have New Year hopes. Here are a few on my list:
- I hope that I’m compassionate with myself. It’s been a tough time. I’ve done the best that I can. I’m pretty tired to be honest. I may not be able to accomplish all that I had planned, but I’m going to try to move forward and build a good life in a new place. All that Florida sunshine certainly helps my mood!
- I hope that I’m compassionate towards others. We’ve all had a struggle. People can be so short-tempered, so demanding. I hope that I’m not one of them, and that when I meet someone who is, I can remember that we’ve all got a story and they may not be able to do any better at that moment in their life.
- I hope that I remember to look for the beauty in every day. Gunny, my soulmate dog, always did that. No matter how hard a day might be, I swear he saw beauty in every one of them – the people and dogs around him, the sunshine, the love. If there was beauty to be found, he could find it.
- Lastly, I hope that we’re all just a little kinder, a little softer, in the coming year. That we remember to say something nice just to make someone’s day. That we hold our tongue rather than criticize someone. Imagine if just once a day, we all committed to say something nice to a stranger! What a great new kindness contagion we could spread in 2022.
I suspect that your dog, like mine, is already practicing all those hopes that I mentioned. Why does it come so easy for them yet can be so hard for us? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that if we try to be more like our dogs, we will find and spread more happiness in the coming year.
Beau and I wish you a wonderful 2022. We would love for you to tell us about your hopes for 2022.