2023, Here Today and Gone Tomorrow

Not only is Ríe y Llora by Celia Cruz my go-to “get it together” song, but it’s a real reminder that our time here is

temporary,

fleeting,

fading,

evanescent,

ephemeral,

here today and gone tomorrow.

It took a lot of time to come to peace with this reality. But once the acceptance settled in, it made every meal that much tastier, every hug that much warmer, and every bad time less impactful than before. All these experiences turn into stories to be passed to others. Whether it’s a story of warning others to not make the same mistakes as you or a story of finding humor in the chaos. In a way, these experiences are just visitors in our lives. We always hold the power of choosing our responses to these experiences. 

2023 visited us for a year and now it’s packing up to leave, which is why I decided to set some time aside to say goodbye to 2023. Rushing 2023 to leave and envisioning all the good that will come in 2024 just felt rude and wrong. There were years before where you prayed or wished you were where you are now. In an effort to honor all the excitement past me carried when thinking about 2023, I’m choosing to take a step back and be grateful for what needed to happen to be where I am now.

So in a reverse-vision board kind of way, I chose to make a reflection board of all the memories that made 2023 the year it was for me. This year’s been an ojalá-heavy kind of year. Ojalá being one of those words that doesn't have a direct translation in English, but you can imagine the vibe as “i wish” “hopefully” “God willing”.

This year brought leaps of faith almost every other month, new homes, celebrations, mournings, book clubs, more art, finally liking grits, being in the best shape of my life (for a few months), rejections aka pivots, Foxie, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago x more than once, pomegranates, first successful scholarship, first bilingual children's book, Cuban genealogy, mangostreetdreaming.com, and Pitbull. And all I can say to that is thank you 2023, it was fun while it lasted.

P.S. the original Ojalá text design was created by @WestOfChester on Instagram.