Happy New Year! A new year is under way, which is certainly cause for celebration! Another year to live, learn, grow, love, experience, and to just be.

By the way, rather than January 1st, I actually use my birthday as the starting point of a “new year,” because it makes sense to me that way. Ever since my brother passed away some years ago, I’ve been grateful for the continued years of life that I’ve been blessed with. His death changed my perspective on a lot of things in life.

Anyhow, we’re only into the first week of 2022 and I’m already (okay, still!) feeling some stress and worry. Politics are much better than they were a couple of years ago, but there’s still so much strife. The prevalence of the covid omicron variant has been stressing me out. My dog will be fifteen years old in a couple of months and I worry that she’ll be crossing the rainbow bridge this year. Betty White’s death was such a major bummer; I was really hoping she’d live to be 100. I’ve again started bringing home papers to correct and tests to grade, so there goes some of my time to unwind. The list goes on.

Not wanting to dwell on the negative so early in the new year, I prayed about it. Interestingly enough, I received some clarity on the matter just the other day on Epiphany. There was an online article on the significance of Epiphany, and although I forgot what the exact words were, it concluded with something inspiring about humans as spiritual beings and letting God’s light shine through us to illuminate a way through the darkness.

I’m a Catholic, and so here I am, letting my light shine in one of the few ways I know how: through writing. After a bit more internet surfing, I got the inspiration to share these five good things that are happening in my life right now.

1. The colorful, twinkling Christmas lights in one of my living room windows (no, I haven’t taken down my holiday stuff yet, but maybe sometime this weekend) are on a timer and have been on at 5 pm and off at midnight every day since before Christmas. I haven’t pinpointed why yet, but I think they’re my favorite decoration to put up every year. Again, maybe something to do with how the lights brighten the darkness?
2. So far, I’m enjoying filling out the lists in the “52 Lists for Happiness” book I got from one of my friends for my birthday a few weeks ago. I’m currently trying to work on list #3: List the things you’re really good at.
3. The other day, my son said, “Bad pipes sound awful.” Yes, little buddy, BAG pipes do sound awful. 😀
4. There’s finally a Beard Papa’s in my city. Their honey butter puff filled with vanilla cream is perfection.
5. It’s due time for me to donate blood again, and what perfect timing! The local blood center’s donation t-shirt for January is Harry Potter themed. Awesome!

What are 5 good things in your life right now? Feel free to share them in the comments section below. As always, thanks for stopping by. ❤