As the final days of this past year come to a close, I find myself reflecting on the many challenges brought on by its life changing events and how they have made me value our strengths and resilience.  How far we've come in a short time that in some ways feels like an eternity.  To some, our endless isolation has seriously deprived us from living, loving and enjoying our lives, When the fact is, the way I see it, is that 2020 has been a very rare and beautiful gift.  The recent loud consensus coming from friends and colleagues has been an overwhelming disdain for what our previous twelve months have brought to all of us.  More than ever I believe it is not about what has happened to us it is how we respond to it.  I risk coming off as having a Pollyanna attitude seeing the world through rose colored glasses.  The choice is ours to take these experiences and be grateful for how we have learned from them.  My new year wish for all of you is to accept future challenges as opportunities for your own personal growth and not as set backs to how you want it to play out.  

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."   -John Lennon

Photography by Ann Tetreault, Friend and Neighbor