A new year’s wish.

Several years ago we were meandering through a shop, and stumbled on this small cardboard square holding starry tissue paper and a little gold pencil. It read “wish paper” on the front with a simple description, “a whimsical kit to make wishes come true”.  It was an absurd price for a cardboard square of tissue paper but, for some reason, I couldn’t leave without it. I threw it in a drawer for months, occasionally stumbling on it again, and trying to remember to break it free at the next best occasion.

When New Years Eve rolled around that year, I had spent the prior week thinking about the perfect wish. One wish that was open-ended enough to embrace whatever the new year would bring, and could also find genuine happiness. I know, that seems a bit silly. However, that particular year, I had uprooted my entire life on little other than faith and hope. For the kind of happiness that, I dreamed, would come from good. So that year, I decided my wish would be for three little words… enjoy every minute. No matter what the next year would bring, whatever changes rolled through or mundane chores carried on. Whatever good or bad life brought, I vowed to find the good in the smallest things and appreciate them.

I think I really started living that year. For the first time. And there started our tradition of a New Years wish. Every December 31st at 11:59 pm we gather our wish paper, commit our dreams to writing with a little gold pencil, and send our hopes for the new year flickering into the endless, starry night sky.

I can’t say I believe that little squares of tissue paper hold any real magic properties. However, I do believe that committing to our hopes and sending our dreams into the world, in any number of ways and actions, proves that there is magic in human spirit. Magic that always begins with just a little flicker of hope.  And, more than anything, that we are all magically capable of amazing things.

Over the past year, in living our dream, we have opened our doors and our lives in amazing new ways. We can’t tell you how thrilled we are that each of you has walked through and shared a bit of time with us. Becoming more and more like friends and family. It has been the most unexpected and wonderful surprise of 2023. As I’m sitting here, once again trying to find the right wish to scribble on a piece of starry tissue paper tonight, I hope you’re all doing a little of the same.

Rob and I hope the new year brings you tons of goodness, hope, and the magic flicker of your dreams coming true.