Happy New Year! It’s a privilege and a pleasure to start the decade with you.

As those of you know who have been reading the Wow for a while, each year I pick a theme for the year.

This year, the below quote from Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things” was my inspiration:

“It is, after all, so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain. To let it be, to travel with it, is much the harder thing to do.”

Why have I chosen this?

Well, like many of you, I find the divisiveness in our country upsetting. More and more, we seem unable to let others have their stories, their thoughts, their dreams. More and more, we seem to need to shatter them.

In addition to the political shenanigans, it’s also possible that—from time to time—I shatter the stories, thoughts and dreams of those around me: a friend, family member, or my sweet husband will say, “I think X, Y, or Z is possible/true/something I’m going to do” and I find myself saying, “Really?” or “Why?” or “Maybe you should do X, Y, or Z instead?”

Enough.

My goal for this year is to—with apologies to the Beatles—let it be. To travel with it.

And while I am 100% certain it will be much the harder thing to do, I am also sure it will be much the better thing to do.

Because when I free myself from monitoring the stories, thoughts, and dreams of those around me, I have far more time and energy for my own.

With all my best wishes to you for your successful travels—not to mention stories, thoughts, and dreams—in the new year.

Want to catch up on themes from prior years?
Well, last year we were “Flexible About Everything but “If”. We “Let them See us Sweat” in 2015. We welcomed “The Year of Absurd Prosperity” in 2012. And in 2009 we threw down a challenge with “I’ll See That and Raise You”.