But, no matter where you go, there’s something deeply rich in coming back home. Back to your roots. Back to your past. Whether the purpose is to find healing, hope, vision, restoration, or just revisit sweet memories — there is always something waiting for you in the homecoming.

Today whether it’s painful or it’s exciting, may you embrace the season of growth you are in. Having hope for what new parts of you will be refined or produced. Finding peace in the fact that you were made to grow.

It’s really hard when you’re in the middle of something. When the joys of newness, fresh starts, and hopeful beginnings have worn off. When you’re smack dab in the messy middle. When you find yourself doubting if you have what it takes to make it to the end, or if you’re being honest, to even make it another day.

But this time away has shown me what can unfold when I give silence the main stage: Peace. Creativity. Revelation. Wisdom. Hope. Growth. There is a sacrifice, an offering, in silence that our world has lost sight of. In the silence, we hear best. Not what the world shouts, but what our spirit softly speaks.

And yet, this bench, it could carry them all. Nothing was too much or too heavy for it. It welcomed unbearable joy and gladness. Anguish and anger. Hope. Madness. It could carry loads of laughter, the deep belly kind. Loneliness, the feeling of being left behind. Ugly secrets, that are being kept in the dark. Confidence, beaming from a filled-up heart.

It’s the new year. And with it comes a list of goals. Improvements. Exercise and meal prep plans. Habit trackers. Crisps pages of new planners. Early morning alarms. Dedicated time to our dreams, tasks, and ambitions. A blank slate, that we are determined to fill in strategic, logical, productive ways.

“Everyone wants to change the world but in the process forgets to care for what’s in front of them. Smile at a stranger. Clean up the land. That’s more than enough. That’s actually what life is all about.”

But what we often really need, is to dust off those parts of ourselves that are already there. Those parts that have been forgotten, neglected. The parts that we haven’t given true intention or thought to. What you need is often already inside of you.

here, this puzzle gave me a blueprint for how to come out the the other side. How to come back to me.

What if as I go through life and stumble upon my shortcomings and flaws, I was no longer disappointed or appalled? What if instead, I found peace, and excitement even, that I’ve discovered another opportunity to grow? A new way to be formed into who I am meant to be?