Possibility. Even the word feels remarkable as I say it aloud. It conjures images of moments and places, people and events waiting to unfold. And this is why I love the turning of a year. All those unmarked calendar pages, so much possibility.

The idea of loving something that we don’t yet know—this is what keeps me imagining, excited to show up in the world. I love being alive to all that is now; yet I also love the anticipation of joy to come. Because I have experienced joy and excitement and falling in love before I even knew a person (I think about the moment I saw my nephew or my own children and fell deeply in love with all the possibility before us), I can envision there is more to come.

One of my favorite ways to spark creativity is through a weekly journal prompt sent by a wonderful writer Suleika Jaouad. In 2020, she created The Isolation Journals, a weekly emailed writing prompt, to connect people to themselves and to each other. Recently she shared a previous journal prompt written by Rhonda Willers who wrote this:

“Many years ago I asked a five-year old boy the very mundane question, ‘What’s your favorite color?’ I’m an artist, and it’s one of my go-to ice breakers with children. It always gets the conversation going, and we explode into all kinds of art talk from there. But this young boy’s profoundly wise answer stuck with me. ‘I love all the colors,’ he said. ‘Even the ones I don’t know about yet.’”

The joy of unknown possibilities. I imagine this might be what could keep us hopeful and excited to be alive and a part of the world—regardless of what unfolds. All the colors, even the ones we don’t know about yet.

So to Willers’ question, “What will thrill you? What might you love that you don’t even know about yet? What are you certain there is more of?” I responded:

I will teach again, and it will be a class with a story I haven’t yet planned. I’ll awake to colors just beginning to streak the sky and I will be delighted for the day on the brink of becoming. Someone I love will make me laugh. Someone I don’t know personally on the screen will crack me up. There are people I’ve not yet met who will touch my life (each year a new group of teacher trainees changes me a bit more forever). I will do work I hadn’t even considered. I will write more words that I couldn’t predict how they’d form together. I will be thrilled to see someone I love who I’ve missed. I imagine there will be some mountain path I’ve not yet hiked, some new recipe I’ll create, a new puzzle to complete, an ocean I’ve never swam in before. 

It’s such a wonder to imagine, to get excited by the possibilities. Get excited friends. What joy might there be awaiting you. Perhaps you’ve made your resolutions. Now imagine what might unfold. Let yourself steep in the joy of your creative mind with all the colors, especially the ones you haven’t yet seen.

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