When God cooks, you don’t see the smoke – African Proverb 

What happened in 2023? 

Who was there with you? 

Who did you become? 

How did your story unfold? 

Reflecting on how I existed in 2023 can feel like I am on a witness stand accounting to my Maker and to myself on how I participated. It can also feel like the time to look at the full picture of how my behaviours have shaped the figure staring back at the mirror – reflections mirror the witness. 

I am grateful for both my choices and the surprises that inserted themselves in my 2023. Some were pleasant and some looked like storms in the night. Reflecting is a tool that I appreciate because it looks at the endings while it spies on the beginnings. 
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What did I witness in 2023? 

 In 2023 I have witnessed halala moments and growing pains. These included :

• Unconditional love – permission to receive it and express it with others. 
• Support – a community that holds space with you. 
• Growth – a colourful bag of upward growth and stubborn weed-like growth (the kind that delays your progress) 
• Storms – meeting them with anger and curiosity. 
• Joy – the kind that beats like drums in your heart and gets your feet moving to the sounds of Reverence. 
• Empathy – being met with sensitive care and being able to give as much freely with no expectations of payback. 
• Recovery – the kind that takes you to moments of discovery. 

I have been an eyewitness to clarity and renewal not only because of how I participated but also because of how I chose to see my experiences. 

I have looked at the storms as symbols that are preparing me for my NEXT. It could be that because of how I witnessed 2023 I get to see the possibilities of 2024. I believe that extracting meaning from what we witness is what shapes how we participate in the future.  

• What did you witness in your 2023 story? 
• What kind of a witness were you in your 2023 storms? 
• How did that shape how you moved through those storms? 
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 Life is poetic in how it expresses itself in our lives and I trust everything witnessed in 2023 is expanding our imagination for what could be witnessed in 2024. 

 Life has been given to us and our responsibility is to respond 

We End with a Start – see you in 2024