My dear brothers, sisters, friends, and loved ones,
I wanted to thank you for the fabulous benediction you have been for me all over 2024. It’s been a year defined by several challenges, sadness, discouragement, and faithlessness, but your benevolent and comforting presence in my life made it one of great exhilaration, profound healing, and cheerful joy, reminding me that time—and what we want to make out of it—is a prism of infinite possibilities. I learned the major difference between trying to control my environment and making the choice to keep being transformed through whatever circumstances come my way. Your affection and kindness acted as a compass guiding my weary heart in a period of emotional obscurity. I’m incredibly grateful for the loving light you are to me.
I wish that 2025 will bring us the inner peace necessary to cultivate our daily dose of laughter, to feed our spirit with hope and excitement in better tomorrows. To find the courage to show compassion for a “world” that doesn’t seem to have much to offer to anyone anymore. To bless a friend, to welcome a stranger. To give in a larger measure than what we believe we should receive. To hug and be hugged. To smile and be smiled to in return. To remember the sensations we had as children looking at the sky, thinking the moon was following us around. To embrace new morning’s possibilities with the eagerness of an adventurer looking to explore the unknown. To stop the course of our hasty journey just long enough to enjoy its wonders, its simplicities, and commonnesses. To be thankful for no other reasons than “being” where we actually are in place and time. To kiss a precious one. To extend love without having to extend conditions. To feel the happiness of the wind caressing our skin. To discover purpose in the people we evolve with. To be fulfilled by someone else’s elation. To experience life by deciding to be alive. To be real, rather than trying to be seen. And so much more… but let’s start with those. Everything else coming our way will add even more brightness to the privilege we’ll have to commune our already colorful canvas together.
Thank you again for inviting me to define the new year’s beginning with you all, it’s highly meaningful to my heart!!!
Your brother and friend
Alex