Happy New Year!

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling hopeful and glad to put 2016 behind us. It was a year of great personal loss for me and many people I love. It was a year of worry, and fear. It was a year of bitter disappointment.

2016 was also a year of awakening though, to be sure. In order to make change, we need to be aware of what needs changing. Now we know.

It's important to note that many wonderful things happened alongside the hard, and I think, if I look back at my theme for 2014, a challenge to find beauty in even the ugliest things, it was there in 2016 all along: Love. Hope. Kindness. Fierce determination. Inspiration.

It was easy to get bogged down in the election results, in the cabinet appointments that followed, and now in the maniacal tweets. But within each of these seemingly devastating moments, people were there to point out the flaws, because people still care. People still dare to stand up and say, "No. That's wrong." People will not let these things go unnoticed, be accepted, or become normalized.

There are more people who care about the welfare of others who are less fortunate than them than people who don't. We need to remember that.

That's where the beauty is. The beauty is in people doing good work for others.

Last year, I didn't bother to post a theme for the year. Nor the year before that. I'm tempted to say I don't know why, but that would be a lie. The truth is I haven't felt inspired. More than that, I haven't felt very brave. I've lost a lot of confidence in my writing, even in my ability to post a blog entry. I've put it off hoping no one would notice. And I don't think anyone really has.

But this year, despite all the seemingly hopeless news going on around us, I've realized that the only way through all of this is, well, charging through it. Charging through it and grabbing anyone's hand who decided to sit this one out because it seems too hopeless. I'm telling you, it's not. This country has been through far, far worse. And a lot of people have been through far worse, too.

What saves us, what saves us every single time, are the people who do the work. It's the people who are brave enough to speak up, who take the time to write, make calls, march, volunteer, stand in the cold, risk criticism, organize, and inspire others to do the same.

I want to make my work meaningful, not just for myself but for others. To give my work purpose. To do it with love, and intention. To model kindness in discourse. To share the truth, and more than that, to seek it out. To volunteer more. To make an effort to thank others for the good work they do. To write the stories I think matter, not the ones that might sell better. I want to do work that makes me feel good, but more importantly that will make others feel good, too. And I want remember to have gratitude for the opportunity to do this work in the first place.

No matter what kind of work you do in your own life, make it good. That's my challenge for myself this year, and it's my challenge for you. In my writing, in my volunteerism, in my teaching, in my speaking engagements, in my conversations with strangers (because for a shy person, that's work too!), in my social media interactions, and even in my daily chores--I want to consider how, in doing this work, I can be more kind, thoughtful, generous, humble and honest. I want to consider how this work might affect others, and adjust to make that affect more positive.

I want to do work that is beautiful because it is good.

I want to start thinking about how I approach work not as a way to make more, but to give more. Can you imagine if the one percent did this? Well, a girl can dream. But really, just imagine.

Do good work.

Think about that when you start your day. Think about what it might mean when applied to the task at hand, whatever it might be.

Do good work, and make a difference in the world. One small job at a time.

Thank you