A Message from Chantel

Hey! It has been a while since I have written for our blog in the lifestyle portion. Mostly because my life has been flipped upside down the last couple years with my son’s health. Long story short, I do love writing and I am excited to spend more time with it for 2025 (no resolution though haha.)

Today I wanted to share a little message about hope. This time of year is particularly hard for me, I am not sure about you, but my grief gets a little messy during the holidays. It has been about seven years since my dad passed away and the holidays haven’t been the same since. This year was especially hard, I lost my dog Mesa to a tragic accident on December 22nd. Life can get heavy, grief is a terrible feeling, one that I don’t prefer to let flatten me. Yes, it is important to feel emotions and to allow space for healing. But for me, I find using my grief helpful. I find honoring my loved ones with my actions helps pull be through some of the hardest days. As we head into January, known to be one of the hardest mental health months of the year, I thought we could all use a little message of hope.

One of the greatest gifts of the human existence is the ability to have free will. Despite circumstances, we get to choose where we put our energy. Often it won’t feel like a choice, but ultimately it is up to us where we invest ourselves. At some point, in every difficult journey, there comes a point where we need to choose to shake it off a bit and try to make effort to live with the hard thing, or move past it. But how? I think it comes down to values. What values do we hold and how do they align with our lives? For me, I want to experience the fullness of life, holding both the sorrow and the joy. I can’t do that when I am angry, resentful, exhausted or overwhelmed. For some of us, this season of winter holds a heaviness, a type of blues. Partly because we need more sunshine and vitamin D to help regulate our bodies, but also partly because our lifestyles prefer sunny warm weather (at least that’s what I like to believe). For some of us we are also “doer’s” which means rest doesn’t come easily. But holding the sorrow and the joy, means feeling the love in the loss while also being able to see the joy in all of it.

A person can always move forward, rise up, shake it off, with enough will, support and encouragement. I am not saying it is easy but it is doable. One day at a time. In any situation there are different perspectives that need to be taken into consideration. What might feel impossible, may just need a blind spot removed. What feels overwhelming, might just need to be broken down into bite size pieces.

The darkness doesn’t need to win, it wins if we allow it. Acknowledge its presence but that’s it. Our will to chase the life we want is greater. It is what I have witnessed in my own son as he fought for his life in his bone marrow treatment. It’s what I have seen in communities where devastation has ravaged its people. The saying “where there is a will, there is a way” is spoken truth. The trick to this saying is not allowing us to see only one way. If we believe that there are many ways and possibilities, we will find the way to make it happen.

So as you wrap up your year, maybe wishing for things to have been a little different, or looking ahead at something that feels too big to handle, remember that it is all about perspective. Yes, this sucks. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it will be hard. But its not final and that’s a really big deal. We still have a life to live and that is a gift. Find your will to live it.

Much love -Chantel