Every year people prepare their New Year’s resolutions; unless they write them down somewhere most cannot remember exactly what they’d decided. At least, that’s what would happen to me.

Like everybody else, when the year is about to end, I would look back and try to remember the positive and negative things I did. I’d start to think, “What changes can I make?”

To be honest, for many years now, I do not spend any energy trying to create resolutions. I just carry over to the following year the good and positive things I did and put the negative ones in the trash.

A friend of mine, talking about her Christmas this year, said it was horrible! She had 16 people staying in her house; young people that she barely knew and the house was a mess. She went on saying that her daughter kept telling her, “Breathe, Mom!” and proceeded to help her as she never had before.

I said, “Stop right there! Don’t you see the blessing here? Keep focusing on that and forget the rest. “

That is my goal each new year- to keep looking at the blessings, forget the rest and move forward.

My grandkids are one of my (continuing) blessings. They all like to pray, but I have a special one that loves to pray using complicated words that she learned from pastors at church. I love to listen to her prayers. I can close my eyes and enjoy her little voice trying to say the right prayer for each one of us.

Another blessing I will carry forward next year is the Christmas card I just received from a student who said: “Ms. Sonia, you are the adult in the school that I love most. You don’t know it, but you have helped me in so many ways you cannot believe. Thanks.”

These are some of the positive things. I don’t care about the rest.

I may not change the world but I can make a difference – one life at a time.

Sonia