2012 reflections {holiday time}

{all images via cape cod collegiate unless specified}

these past weeks have been a rollercoaster of the highest highs to the lowest lows. our family lost a beloved aunt at 67-years young, i attended engage and roomed with three of the most inspiring gals a girl could ever meet [hi kristin, cyn, and amber - you rule] and mixed and mingled with the best of the best in the industry while reflecting on my own business & making plans to implement my learnings for success in 2013, a hometown girl just a year younger than me lost her 5-year battle with cancer (she was an identical twin), and then the newtown elementary school shootings took place. all of these events seemed to be within just days of each other.

but yet - i feel this odd sense of change in the air. i’ve gotten more texts/emails/FB messages/tweets than i can count from people saying they’ve been “coffee elfing” and just yesterday i found out that one of the people i “elfed” was actually a friend of mine, who was grief stricken following the newtown events paired with the passing of the above-mentioned friend. she facebook messaged me and asked if i had coffee elfed at our town’s dunkin donuts that day, to which i answered - yes! (but it really could have been anyone which is even more exciting) she then sent me a private message and ended it with “When the man told me the coffee was paid for by a stranger my eyes literally filled with tears and I was speechless. You by your single act helped put a piece of me back together, I hope to do it to someone else. Hopefully we can all help put each other back together.” 

buying a coffee for the person behind you at the drive through isn’t going to change the course of events in the past and may seem like such a small thing but it’s these little things that are starting to stand out from the noise (vote for my blog! check out my outfit!), and are really making such a huge difference. the #26acts that ann curry started has really hit home for so many of us, and it seems that the good is starting to outshine the bad. robbie parker, father of one of the newtown victims, emilie alice parker, spoke out after the newtown shooting and said that he wasn’t mad at the gunman, and instead that his family’s love and support goes out to the gunman’s family as well. how amazing is that, in comparison to the messages that could be sent, to set the tone for positive change and thinking. i was overwhelmed with admiration, inspiration and hope when i saw that.

usually this time of year brings about my “year in review” but since i already did my “what i learned this year” post (find that one here), and will be updating my site/portfolio with pics from this year’s projects + events in the coming weeks, i’m going to sign off from the blog for the holidays, to continue this wave of doing good and spend precious time with friends + family. from my family to yours, i wish you all a very merry christmas and happy new year. i hope you are able to make and take the time to spend with your loved ones and do the things that matter most. my aunt’s last wishes to all of us were, “in lieu of flowers, spend time with those you never have the time to see. do something you always say you’ll do later.” my family is following her wishes and we are doing those things. eating dinner together. taking that trip we always said we’d do. going up to boston to visit my brother for the day, even if the to-do list is 10 pages long. i hope you can do the same over the holidays and bring this positive light out of such a dark world we’ve seen in the past week or so. even if that means buying coffee for a stranger :)

happy holidays, all, and i’ll see you back here in 2013! it’s going to be good.