A little grief for what’s gone.
A little gratitude for what stayed.
And big hope for whatever’s next.
We leave doors open for people
Who will never knock again.
Stubborn human heart,
Living for maybes and what ifs.
Hoping, until the day it dies.
May the new year open into light,
a dawn that softens every night.
May joy take root where shadows end,
and quiet strength our footsteps send.
May purpose guide each patient hand,
and dreams find soil in every land.
May love stay near—both deep and true
restoring hearts, both worn and new.
May wealth bring ease, not hollow fire,
enough to rest, enough to aspire.
May health run clear through nights and days,
like tireless rivers finding ways.
Let kindness cross from shore to shore,
let lifted hearts ask less for more.
A year for all of us to rise,
beneath wide, clear, unburdened skies.
In the end,
It’s not the years in your life that count
It’s the life in your years.
Some hearts will love, some tongues will scorn,
some hands will hold, some leave me worn.
Yet still my spirit stands its ground
no borrowed judgment weighs it down.
Their glances flicker, doubt may rise,
like passing clouds across the skies.
I’ve learned what living truly means
to guard my fire, protect my dreams.
I walk with embers in my chest,
give weary thoughts their needed rest.
I make my soul a gentle home,
unshaken, even when alone.
Let cheers or frowns the world may send,
they do not shape the path I bend.
My heart keeps time to truth’s own drum,
no matter who may go or come.
She is not lady, she is not lost.
She is a soul learning how to breathe again
Under the weight of survival.
She just needs a break.