This has been an especially difficult, all-consuming year — even for me, the consummate optimist! Following my mom’s massive stroke and concurrent heart attack on February 22, 2009, my family and I watched her truly awful decline for nearly eight long months (she was paralyzed and had lost the ability to speak and eat with the stroke). It was a horrendous way to see someone you love die. And yet, in trying to see the ’silver lining’ of every cloud, it gave us daily opportunities (through one-way dialogue — that we knew she understood) to share memories, recall dreams, discuss virtually everything. Precious, yet painful. With wonderful care from hospice and her beloved family at her side, she died on October 5, 2009.

The last two months I’ve been ‘wrapped up’ with a month of intensive PT that resulted, unfortunately, in the need for surgery on a torn rotator cuff, injured in transporting/caring for Mom. A bittersweet reminder, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I’ll be back at work mid-January… and able to drive by the end of the month. My surgeon is confident I’ll have full use of my shoulder/arm following four months of physical therapy — I can’t wait to get started!

So as I consider my year-end message — and my New Year’s resolution — I’m reminded by a dear friend and colleague of Emily Dickinson, a lifelong favorite poet: “Dwell in Possibility.” I intend to do just that — and urge every reader to find their own mantra, something that resonates with the values you hold dear as you think fondly of the past and plan with passion for the future.

On to career management, job search, and exciting employment trends in 2010 in my next post.