“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” Oprah Winfrey.

I like that thought.

This time of year, who can resist looking back to see what we learned along the way?

I deemed 2016 my year of healing. As you can see from the blogs I wrote at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, I was still trying to process the loss of my mother, who died from Lewy Body dementia (a combination of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), the death of my mother-in-law who lost her battle to ovarian cancer a few months later, and my son’s awful divorce and custody battle.

As I related before, transferring dates into my new date book was a bit traumatic last year. These trials inspired articles like How to Find Yourself Again , Focusing on Myself,  and Three Simple Things You Should Do Everyday. If you’ve had a rough year, feel free to check these articles out to find out what helped me move forward and rediscover myself.

In the end, I am grateful for the past 12 months that allowed me to heal, nourish myself spiritually, appreciate all my blessings, and move forward. I enjoyed precious time with my husband, children, grandchildren, family and friends, new experiences that included a romantic trip to Chicago and an exhilarating concert extravaganza Desert Trip with Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, along with some quiet, peaceful moments of introspection.

As I learned, adversity can be a catalyst for making changes. Setbacks and painful experiences can provide motivation to examine your life and ask yourself what will make you feel happy and fulfilled going forward. “A bend in the road is not the end of the road…unless you fail to make the turn,” Helen Keller famously said.

So, I’ve made the turn and move into 2017 with a hopeful spirit, fresh goals, and curiosity as to what lies ahead.

Me and hubby “sailing” into 2017.

A big thank you to the 20,000 people who have visited my blog and taken this journey with me. I am extremely grateful to all of you who have left comments, which always makes my day, and the 5,000 subscribers who follow me on a regular basis. THANK YOU.

As I did last year, I will be taking the next couple of weeks off to spend time with my family and will see you all in 2017. In the meantime, i wish you all the very, very best.

See you next year!

Image courtesy of krishna arts at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.