Publisher's Letter
We made it… or we are making it, as we gladly welcome a new year! In March, I didn’t know if my kids would ever return to school, if I would ever get to watch sports again, or when we’d be able to give hugs! Thankfully, I survived, sports are back and I have hugged all the people that will let me. So welcome 2021! We are ready for a clean slate, a chance to do things differently and to carry on with our ever-growing mask collections and the fight against the “maskne” they cause. “Social-distancing,” “quarantine life,” and “virtual”-everything describes how we roll now.
It is fascinating at one second past midnight on January 1, when the jump from Thursday to Friday, which normally holds no significance, suddenly brings champagne toasts, celebrations, reflection and resolutions. This unique tick of the clock prompts us into transition. It’s a moment by which we keep the chronological score of our lives. It’s a time to raise our glasses and toast our survival (especially this year)!
What entices us to start each year with resolutions? Is it about survival, too? Committing to live healthier, better and longer are just examples of our desire to have some control over what lies ahead. The future is unsettlingly unknowable and that truth took me a while to accept. I don’t think I truly grasped how out of control I was until my husband and I unexpectedly lost our first son. A trouble-free pregnancy came to a screeching halt the day before I was due to deliver. It was a devastating lesson that taught me, no matter what resolution I had made for that year, the reality of our lives was going to require a lot of prayer from others and a hoped for miracle of peace. From that experience and the blessing of two more sons, I have become someone who is pretty predictable but continues to live life moment by moment. I may be one of the few people in the world who still does not have Netflix. My friends laugh at me because my favorite shows to watch on TV are Good Morning America, The 700 Club and Dateline… this is not a joke. I have never seen Yellowstone, and my music taste is limited to 90s country, or 90s hip-hop, or whatever is on K-LOVE. I think being so out of touch with trends gives me extra time and a deep appreciation for what is happening around me. I pay attention to the people in my area and want to be a part of what is happening here.
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” —Albert Einstein
If you take the time to look, you will see Cindy and Dr. Matt Young keeping their fingers on the pulse of our community. You can find Dr. Young serving as the Bowie County Health Authority, Medical Director of LifeNet and your hometown doctor at Texarkana Emergency Center and Hospital. Cindy is more behind the scenes but is the visionary behind the impeccable services they offer and the almost $500,000 they have given back to the community! They are a generous couple who work together to improve Texarkana. I’ve known them to leave random acts of kindness on people’s cars around town, support the local school districts, celebrate our first responders and help with almost anything they are asked to do. We had a great (socially distanced and completely masked up) evening interviewing the Youngs in their home and shooting photos. As I listened to them share their story about family, business and community, they inspired me. It is encouraging as a new entrepreneur, mom and wife, to hear about their business, their love for one another and most importantly, their faith and trust in the Lord.
As we are all settling in to the new habit of writing “2021,” let’s be encouraged. No matter how many resolutions we have made, kept or failed, it doesn’t really matter. We aren’t in control anyway. With a 365-page book to fill, write a good one. Let’s follow the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let every new year find you a better man.”
Cheers,
