Advice for the New Year

“Mom. I have an idea about your cancer.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s kinda like we’re fighting through the dark side. With the Force. And then when when it’s gone, we’ll be on the light side.”

“Ohhhh. I like that. Like a Star Wars thing, huh?”

“Yeah. Because you know mom, even if you don’t want to do something, that’s just how life goes. It’s like a stream. It flows along and you have to flow along with that part to get to the other side of the stream.”

“Wow. B. Where did you read that? Did someone tell you that?”

“No. It’s just the truth. We’re all in the stream. We have to choose to swim. It’s just life. There are dark and light parts. I just thought about that.”

“I mean. You. Kid. Are wise beyond your years.”

“I know.”………..

It’s 2016. A fresh start. A new year. New beginnings. Full of hope. And promise. It’s enough to get giddy about. Because maybe 2015 wasn’t “your year”. Maybe it didn’t go as planned. Or maybe, you just didn’t do everything you wanted to do.

Some might think that because of the way the second half of my year went… because I was diagnosed with cancer in 2015… that I would say, “good riddance” to the year we just left behind. But instead. Instead, I found so much in 2015 that I don’t know that I found in the years that came before. And my conversation with the Oldest… the one that happened yesterday morning… it reminded me once again. We’re all in the stream. And we have to choose to swim. Just like Nemo, right? Just keep swimming.

But that’s not all. That’s not all I learned in 2015. And so, today, I share my lessons from 2015. In hopes that you can use them for 2016. Or at least, you can think of what the past year taught you. And how you will use those lessons moving forward.

Mama Brehm’s Advice for 2016… In pictures