I slept through the turning of the New Year, but woke this morning well before the promise of a sun’s light that has yet to break through the grey drip of rain outside my window. There was no celebratory toast at midnight, nor the watching of a silver orb dropping from the sky. Instead, 2024 passed into 2025 rather quietly. The evening spent with my husband and college-age son watching a film and eating takeout sushi before I retired with my head cold to an early bed.

Inevitably, there were moments of reflection as the years turned into each other. And one word, in particular, taking root in the firmament of my being. “Determination.” A few days ago, while driving home from the dealership where my husband’s car had undergone maintenance, bold white letters on a green billboard drew my gaze away from the night road. “Start Building Your Sanctuary Today.”

It was a sign. Literally and symbolically. I seized upon its blatant command with, well, determination. I have not made a list of resolutions, but one singular objective has carried me through 2024 into 2025, and that is to find and start building my sanctuary. I am trusting, with determination, that this will be the year that the land presents itself to me and we begin to build our contract with each other. I trust because I have learned that when something like this grabs ahold of your consciousness with such steadfast determination, it will not give up until it is realized.

In the midst of a world that feels very much in a state of global upheaval, I am looking forward to planting the seeds of connection in a sanctuary that will, one day, be open to all.

I wonder what word, or words, are pulling others into this new year? What impetuous is driving you forward into another turning of the calendar?