“Everything is so green!” I exclaim as the wind whips through my hair and the pontoon boat skims across the water. The scenery is so vibrant, it looks like something out of a cartoon.

“Yeah, it’s wild how different everything looks when we’re not in a drought,” my friend says.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” I pause, letting her words settle in.

I remember the dry, brown days last summer, and the summer before, and pretty much every summer since we moved to this area. We’ve had several years of official droughts, and even when we weren’t officially in a drought season, the landscape was always a faded green at best.

Noise often chases away any silence in our hearts, our heads, and our homes during this season. As one year ends and another begins, loud voices shout out what we should be doing, buying, and thinking. On December 26, sales on toys will be replaced with advertisements for planners. Baking supplies for nutritional supplements. Twinkling lights for yoga mats.

An avid goal setter myself, I usually love this time of year to reflect and reset. To take the good of the past twelve months and plan to make it even better in the next. I typically select a word for the year and base all my goals on that central intention. Since Thanksgiving, I have been considering what word I would choose for 2025.