White Knuckles, Open Palms

There’s nothing quite like a New Year’s well-wish from someone whose year went suspiciously according to plan. You smile, nod, and quietly file their optimism somewhere unhelpful.

And while I do want to send you well-wishes for the new year, you can rest assured: my year did not go according to plan.

Before we get into the well-wishes, I want to say this to anyone who’s had a hard year: you’re not broken for feeling tired. You’re not failing because things didn’t turn out the way you hoped. Some years don’t need a lesson – they just need to end.

For us, December felt like proof of that. Wind storms. Rain storms. Freezing nights. All of it spent working outside in a tent. I had more than a few sleepless nights replaying life choices and wondering how I ended up here. If your year felt heavy, uncertain, or just plain exhausting, you’re not alone in that.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, I’m learning that building something more permanent takes longer than we want it to. It’s tested every ounce of patience we have and demanded more time, more energy, and more resources than we planned.

But here’s what I keep coming back to: hard seasons aren’t meant to be carried alone. And somehow, in the middle of all of this, community keeps showing up. In shared tables. In conversations over pizza. I’m learning that progress doesn’t always look like winning – sometimes it just looks like staying.

The best part of this past year has been getting to know so many of you. One thing I’ve learned is that most of us are standing at some kind of crossroads – wondering what to do next, or feeling nervous about taking the step we know we need to take. Which is why I keep coming back to this: let’s make this year our year – emphasis on our.

Maybe this is the year you take the step you’ve been postponing. The year you try something new, even if it’s imperfect. The year we trade white knuckles for open palms.

Let’s step into the new year together – not because everything is figured out, but because we have a community to carry it with us. Happy New Year to everyone… except Domino’s.