November 2023

I was looking back on our website to remind myself of the blog topic I wrote about from November of last year. Mostly because I was going to write a feel-good blog about being thankful and didn’t want to repeat myself. Well, sure enough, last year I mentioned things I was thankful for as we enter into another holiday season.

It was interesting, however, to remind myself of things that were on my mind. We were still winding down COVID and looking forward to more normalcy. Last year was a very bad year in the markets, and I think as a team we were looking for a fresh January start.

We got it! It hasn’t been the best year, but it has been better. Inflation is down considerably; the stock market has rallied and now we have Certificates of Deposit paying 5% or more! What more can we ask for?

Every year we all go through ups and downs. Some years the downs are much worse than others, and some years the ups are much better than others. In my own life, my downs have helped me appreciate the ups that much more. I have also recognized in my experience, is that it can be easy to forget the ups and focus on those bad things.

Let’s take a minute to celebrate the good! The ups, the fun, the things that brought us joy this year. Bad things happen. They always will. When they do, we hurt, we grieve, we worry but then we must use that energy to move forward and bring out the best of the situation. This is not meant to diminish the bad that has happened but using it to make something better.

I remember having someone share with my husband Roger and I, during a really hard time in our lives, that in 3 months we will look back and we will be amazed at how far we have moved forward from that time. It seemed impossible to believe. That person was so right. We bring that up often with each other now when things are rough.

We cannot control things that we cannot control, but we can choose what we do next. I choose good. I hope you do too! Happy November and Happy Thanksgiving!