Happy New Year! Welcome, 2024!

Posted on by Samantha J Rose

Happy New Year! These are our family photos from early December 2023! I was determined—so help me, we would have our traditional family photos for Christmas cards. We used Paul’s phone and a tripod and TADA! Nearly everyone complained the whole time, and it was freezing cold, but I regret nothing!!! They’re beautiful. These kids are growing up so fast and change so much from year to year… soon, they’ll be all grown, and all I’ll have are my stories I wrote, and my photos, and Christmas cards, to help remember these good old days.

Last year was so hard. But there were so, SO MANY good moments, too. Despite the disguise life sometimes puts on, I know I’m in the good old days right now. And I want to remember them.

So, I had a dream a few weeks ago. It was so vivid. Now, some people have reoccurring dreams—I have reoccurring places. And I dreamt that Paul and I were at a reoccurring place that doesn’t exist—it’s like a fortress for rich people up in Salt Lake. It has a manmade lake in the middle that people boat on… we always just visit. Even in my dreams, I can’t afford to live there.

Anyway, we were boating on the lake, and this hole opened up in it. Paul tried to dodge it, but it happened so fast, and we fell in. Somehow, I ended up falling in such a way that I knew the boat was going to land on top of me and I was going to die. I saw my life flash before my eyes, and I felt a wave of sadness at the things I would miss, but I also felt peace… and I thought, “My kids were the best part.”

And then I woke up.

That dream has really stayed with me. I don’t know. Dreams are weird. Life is weird. It’s really short, ya know. It goes by so fast. And I know that this little family right here, in these photos… this is the best part of it.

I’ve been obsessing over this quote by a guy named William R. Bradford:

“We give our lives to that which we give our time.”

Our time is limited. And I just have to continue to remind myself—no matter how painful, how crazy, how scary, how difficult, how out-of-control and uncertain things get… don’t let yourself get so lost in all of that, that you miss the best parts of life. This is my main goal for 2024, and just, life.