As an empath, we are like sponges. We feel deeply, care deeply, and often absorb the emotions and energy of the people around us. It is a beautiful gift, but if we’re not careful, it can also leave us feeling emotionally drained.
Protecting your peace isn’t selfish—it’s necessary. We don’t have to carry every burden or solve every problem. Setting healthy boundaries, choosing who and what we allow into our lives, and stepping away from negativity is one of the greatest acts of self-care we can practice.
Today, give yourself permission to release what isn’t yours to carry.
Guard your heart, protect your energy, and remember that peace isn’t something you find—it’s something you choose.
Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, many of us quietly pack away our dreams.
As children, we imagined without limits. We wanted to write books, travel the world, open bakeries, become artists, own little cottages by the sea, or simply live a life that felt meaningful and full. We believed anything was possible because no one had yet convinced us otherwise.
Then life happened.
Responsibilities arrived. Bills needed to be paid. Children needed to be raised. Careers demanded our attention. We learned to be practical, realistic, and responsible. Little by little, many of our dreams were placed on a shelf labeled “someday.”
But here’s what I’ve come to believe:
The dream never really dies.
It waits.
It waits through the busy years, the difficult years, the years when everyone else seems to need a piece of you. It waits patiently until one day you wake up and realize there is finally room in your life for you too.
Maybe your dream is to write a book or travel the world. Maybe it’s to learn to paint, start a business, take a dance class, or simply rediscover who you are when you’re not taking care of everyone else.
Whatever it is, age is not the reason to stop dreaming.
In many ways, growing older gives us something we didn’t have when we were young: wisdom. We know what matters and how quickly time passes. We understand that regret is often heavier than fear.
So if there’s still a dream tucked away in your heart, perhaps it’s there for a reason.
Maybe it isn’t too late.
Maybe this is the exact moment your dream has been waiting for.
Anyone who has lost someone close knows that the first year is filled with a series of quiet milestones. The first Christmas without them. The first Thanksgiving. The first Easter. The birthdays they aren’t there for. Each one arrives with a moment where you feel their absence a little more clearly. Over time, you realize that the first year isn’t just about grief — it’s about learning how the world continues to turn while you slowly learn how to carry their memory with you in it.
For me, my mom passed away just six days before my birthday last year, so today also marks the closing of that very first cycle of “firsts.” The holidays, the moments, the days when I instinctively reached for the phone before remembering. Somehow, we made it through all of them. Not perfectly, not easily — but we made it through.
Now a new year begins, one that isn’t measured by firsts, but by memories. The love doesn’t disappear, and neither do the lessons or the laughter. They simply change form and maybe that’s the quiet truth of grief: the first year teaches you how to live with it, and the years that follow remind you that love never really leaves.
Grief never truly goes away – we simply learn to carry it differently, side by side with the love and memories that will always remain.
As I sit here on the very first day of 2026, on a quiet Thursday afternoon, I can feel it:
hope, gratitude, excitement and a sense of peace I didn’t know I was capable of.
Last year wasn’t easy. I lost my mom, and that grief changed me in ways I’m still learning to understand, yet in the middle of that heartbreak, family found its way back to me. Doors I thought were long closed opened again. Love showed up in places I never expected and I’m grateful for that.
I also lost a very good friend, gone without conversation, explanation, or closure, and while it hurt, I chose to thank them anyway. I thanked them for the years we shared, even if they never responded because sometimes people leave without warning and we may never know why. Sometimes endings don’t come with answers. Sometimes they just come.
But here’s the thing:
With endings come beginnings.
With heartbreak comes clarity.
With loss comes room for something new.
And today, on 1/1/2026, I choose to see the good that grew from the hard. I choose gratitude for what was, hope for what’s becoming, and excitement for what’s waiting for me just beyond the horizon of this brand new year.
My mantra for 2026?
“Kiss it up to God and hand it over to the universe…and keep going.”
Here’s to a year of believing in myself, trusting the journey, loving the lessons, and welcoming every beautiful beginning that’s meant for me.
Happy New Year, my friends.
May 2026 be gentle with us, bold for us, and full of magic we never saw coming.
December 1st always arrives with a certain kind of magic. It’s the first day of the last month – the final chapter of a story we’ve been writing all year long.
And maybe this year wasn’t perfect.
Maybe it held moments that broke your heart and moments that helped you heal.
Maybe there were lessons you didn’t ask for, blessings you didn’t expect, and changes you never saw coming.
But here’s the beautiful thing:
You made it here…
To this morning.
To this moment.
To this quiet breath at the end of a long year.
December is a gentle reminder that there’s still time.
Time to make peace with what happened.
Time to embrace what didn’t.
Time to forgive, to release, to soften and to open your heart to whatever is waiting just around the corner.
The page has not closed yet.
You still have 31 days to write something new, to surprise yourself, to choose joy and to rediscover hope.
So today, on this first day of the last month, be proud of who you’ve becomes…and excited for who you’re still becoming.
I love the first day of the month, no matter the month. It’s a feeling from childhood of the excitement of the first day of school, or how you felt on Christmas morning, not knowing what “Santa” brought you. The memories of those emotions always come back to me on the first of each month because there’s an excitement of not knowing what the month will bring. It’s as if we’re given another month to get things right or do them better than the month before.
It’s a new month with no mistakes in it. It’s a new month to change things, to do things differently, or to do what it takes to live your best life.
Here’s to the new month of July and all that it can bring to you…to all of us.
Welcome this first day of July with open arms, a delicious iced coffee and a mindset that this month will be filled with all that you want!
Life is filled with endless possibilities and with each new month there’s a renewed sense of gratitude for receiving the gift of another month to live your best life.
Do you make a list of things you need to do? I do and I don’t have just one! I have the shopping list, the list of bills that need to be paid, a list of doctor appointments that need to be made and so on, and so forth. I must go through all the lists I’ve made at least once a month to check off what I’ve done and what still needs to be done.
But what about this? What about making a list of things you need to do each day just for YOU? Why not make a list of “reminders” of important thoughts and actions you need to live your best life?
Here’s a “life list” I started making for myself for this new year of 2025:
The moment my eyes open in the morning, and before I get out of bed, I stretch and say a prayer of gratitude for another day to do things better than the day before.
Each morning that I have my first cup of coffee (or tea) I sit and meditate for the day. I keep my thoughts positive and remind myself that I am worthy of all good things.
I want to devote time each day to reading a book with a cup of tea and relaxing.
When my thoughts start racing into a negative direction I will stop and take some deep breaths and refocus my attention on something positive. (This is an important one while dealing with PTSD)
And each day I want to embrace the gift of another day to laugh, to dance, to hug another and to count my blessings.
The list can go on and on but you understand what I mean. We tend to get so caught up in life that we forget to enjoy it and it’s time that we change that!
I am incredibly excited to let you know that I have started my own podcast called “Here’s The Thing” with Anne Dennish.
“Here’s The Thing” is about this crazy little world we live in and how we are all trying to keep it together, get it together and do it together. I’m bound and determined to help people and make this world a better place in spite of the people trying to ruin it. On a side note, my life is an OPEN BOOK and “here’s the thing:” I’m not afraid to read from it!
You can find me on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and iHeart radio! Take a listen and follow along, and don’t be afraid to send me a message or comment on my podcast. I value your opinion!
I keep hearing that song by Eddie Money called “I Wanna Go Back” and after the other night of feeling hurt that’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to go back in time and “do it all over.”
But we can’t and I know that but sometimes I can’t help thinking about what I would have done differently, yet you know why we think that we’d do it better? It’s because we know better now. We’ve learned valuable life lessons throughout the years and hopefully, have learned to love ourselves in a way that we didn’t back then.
And I think that’s the key as to why we sometimes look back with sadness and regret. We wish we knew then what we know now but we all know that that’s not how life works and I believe that the biggest reason is that back then we didn’t know how to love ourselves, we were taught to love others and put others first.
Picture yourself 10, 15, 20 or more years ago loving yourself unconditionally. Imagine who you would have been if you had. Our decisions and choices would have most likely been very different.
But we can’t go back. We can only move forward.
The past is the past. The mistakes and decisions we made then are long gone and forgiven. We’ve learned that taking care of ourselves is just as important, if not more, as taking care of others. We are of much more value to others when we can value ourselves.
There are days that “I wanna go back and do it all over” but I can’t and that’s okay. I know how much I’ve grown because I can look back and know how I would have done it differently. I’ve learned from my mistakes and I’m sure I’ll make more moving forward but that’s life. We learn from our mistakes.
Here’s to all of us being a work in progress. Give yourself permission to “go back” for a moment to remind yourself just how far you’ve come.
And you’ve come a long way.
We all have.
Thank you, Eddie Money, for an awesome song that’s a reminder for all of us!
Monday Mantra: Protect Your Peace 
Anne Dennish - Writer/Author 