As 2025 was happening in real time, I was often gritting my teeth through its constant ups and downs. But as I take a moment to breathe and look back into its rearview mirror, I am reminded of a relentless truth that has a way of changing the scenery entirely.
Life has this way of ushering in profound blessings and pleasant surprises, woven in with everything from the inevitable mlld frustrations to blindsiding devastation and loss. I am of the firm belief, however, that they are all one in the same.
This year brought no shortage of challenges, frustrations and painful events: The passing of two matriarchal figures in my life, along with a few other long-time friends who left too soon for my liking, witnessing loved ones wrestle with addiction and relapse, delays on a book that I am very eager to present to the world, watching several beloved friends battle through cancer…and so on.
But, as with all challenges and losses, they arrived bearing hidden gifts with my name on it, minus the pretty packages. As I look back on this year, I am recognizing the undeniable power I wield in how I choose to receive all that this year (and life, in general) has bestowed upon me. And the more I have come to embrace this power, the more likely I am not to waste it on limited perspectives.
I love the freedom of knowing that I get to decide how life’s baffling moments will impact me. Every delay, every death, every scary relapse of those I love, every uncertainty, every illusion of helplessness, every ounce of fear and worry on my own or others’ behalf – all of it – leads me to the same crossroads every time. They can either be a “problem” for me to lament, or they can be colorful reminders that I am loved fiercely by a force that will never stop bringing me opportunities to grow, regenerate and strengthen with each passing day, so that even the worst of storms cannot take me out.
I have never felt more powerful and capable and yet I will still have moments when I will choose to shake my fists in impotent rage at what I cannot control. I will still have days when I hide in terror at the abyss of uncertainty that looms over all of us at times. It’s all part of the deal of being human. I am a perfect mess. I am a storm within myself. But I also have the capacity to embrace the ugliness of life, alongside the beauty and to allow it all to become nourishment. When I allow that transformation to happen without fighting it, it ceases to be ugly. It all becomes love…simply because I said so.
My wish for you this holiday season and in the coming year(s) is that you dare to dance your heart out through the awkward, gorgeous ugliness of life until it ceases to be anything but love.…and here’s the best part: It was always LOVE. LOVE sits at the core of everything we are taught to fear and hide. We can’t know grief without first knowing love. Rage is what happens as a result of loving something or someone (including ourselves) fiercely. Love isn’t always pretty, but it is always worth whatever the cost may be, (but only if I am patient enough to wait for the return on my emotional investment).
May you know what pure magic you are and that you are bigger than any challenge, any illness, any anxiety, any fear, any self-loathing, any poor choices, any childhood wounds, etc. There is nothing more powerful than you, because you ARE DEEP, PURE, POWERFUL LOVE. Selah.
Karen Davis King, The Professional Human
