Just a thought… You can rise up from anything. You can completely recreate yourself. Nothing is permanent. You’re not stuck. You have choices. You can think new thoughts. You can learn something new. You can create new habits. All that matters is that you decide today and never look back. [@BuddhismPageFB]

Home alone this Christmas Eve? I’ll be on Facebook this Wednesday night if you want to join me. I wish I could do a Facebook Live event, but my tech knowledge is limited and more importantly, I’m afraid it would be dreadfully dull for you. So it’s best we just share some comments and thoughts and even pictures, if that’s what you want. And, yes, baseball memories are welcome! Shall we say 8 pm ET?

This is the season for gratitude and you are at the top of my list. For coming along for the ride every week, for joining me on Threads @erindawndavis (where the community continues to grow – take THAT, Twitter/X) and, of course, for listening.

Drift with Erin Davis sleep stories have blossomed to 400,000 downloads and Gracefully and Frankly, the labour of love that fellow Queenager Lisa Brandt and I do together, continues to grow with over 210,000 downloads. You’ve given me purpose in this reWirement, and most importantly, we’ve maintained connection, you and I. And really, isn’t that the most important thing?

I posted this picture on Facebook last week.

I captioned it saying that, for many of us, this was the feeling. But then I asked visitors to share any good things that happened to them in the past 12 months. What a joyful collection of answers came in! From new grandbabies to negative cancer results, the responses just warmed and filled my heart.

Most importantly, they were a reminder to find the positive. Now, you know me. Gratitude (along with a fairly extensive streak of rage at injustice and stupidity) has fuelled me for the past several years. Sometimes it’s hard to find the light, but on this first full day of winter, as the daylight begins to win over the darkness, the metaphor seems apt: so goes our lives.

Even on the most depressing days – and, yes, this time of year is filled with them for many of us – there are glimmers of light. We need only look outside our homes, outside ourselves, to find them. I know, I know…easier said than done.

But it’s the quick fixes. A comforting tea or a special coffee. A meditation on YouTube (it’s not hard to do; just close your eyes and listen). A TV show that’s familiar and makes you laugh. Okay, that last one I am definitely not doing: been bingeing the dark and dirty eight seasons of Peaky Blinders on Netflix. Cillian Murphy is easy on the eyes, but the rest, while compelling, is challenging, to say the least. But to balance it out, I did discover Jane Austen movies!

Well, I’m wandering now, so I’ll bring us all back to the light.

Let me wish you a gentle week, whatever it may bring. Some of us have to take comfort in the memories that will take us through until it’s time to make new ones. Others will be surrounded by joy – quiet or boisterous – and hopefully laughter. That is what I wish for you.

Most of all, I thank you. For helping me to remember to find the gratitude. Because even though for many of us, life didn’t turn out the way we thought it would or it should, it’s up to us to make the best of what we have in this one life we get. And really, when it comes down to it, we have a lot.

With love,

Erin