Searching for Meaning

2024 has found me, us, the world. I keep searching for meaning in the moments, large and small, that made up 2023, globally as well as personally. There are disappointments, challenges, losses, and triumphs dotted throughout the year. Somehow today it is the little kindnesses that stand out to me in a sea of painful moments. And, I wonder if sometimes we forget that a little kindness, a little love, a little compassion goes a long way toward making life bearable for those in challenging circumstances.

My problems this year pale in comparison to worldwide atrocities. They were still challenges I had to face and handle. Those challenges taught me some lessons about the people in my life as well as about myself.

Frankly, I don't want to talk about my personal 2023 right now.

Relationships change, grow, end, and begin. People lift us up and people let us down. Good things happen, and bad things happen. The world around us can be incredibly kind and just as cruel. And through it all, we have the power to choose how we will react, even to events beyond our control.

As I sit here today, looking back and looking forward, I evaluate my past reactions to see where I could react better going forward. I also reflect on the boundaries I need to take care of myself that I often allow to be breeched. I look at my strengths and weaknesses wondering if either is as important as my authenticity. I assess how I showed up for others and how I didn't. Overall, I look at my choices, good and bad, and wonder if I can learn to make ones better in line with my values
 
While I don't know what 2024 will bring, my best guess is that it will be a continuation of all the unfinished business - personal, professional, and global - of 2023. Even if business that seems finished turns out not to be, the best I can do, the best any of us can do, is see the moment before us for what it is and do our best to react with compassion, understanding, love, kindness, and authenticity applying the lessons we've learned along the way.



T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

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