Photo Credit: Jamie on Flickr 

2016 is almost winding down and therefore people will be writing their reflections and their resolutions for 2017. I have noticed a theme; most people believe that 2016 was a really terrible year. I disagree and here is why:

Some really shitty, scary, horrible things happened this year. That I completely understand. We lost many influential artists, wars and violence were a central theme, and there was an election that rattled many of us to the core. However, I think 2016 was the year we all needed. We needed to be reminded that we have not been awake and aware of our surroundings. We needed to be reminded that maybe we haven’t been fully appreciating the gifts that life has been providing us. We needed to be reminded that we must live our lives out of love, not fear. We needed to be made aware of people who need our love and support, but were not getting it. We needed to be shaken up and reconnected to humanity. I fully believe that as 2016 comes to a close that it is a time for us to reflect on what the lessons were this year. We need to not wish it away and think of 2016 as a horrible one, but to learn something from it.

I hope going forward into 2017, we love harder, we take care of our hearts, minds and bodies, we tell our loved ones how wonderful they are, we spread hope and love, we grow our minds, we live in the moments, we show gratitude for what and who we have and we smile more.