Stop Trying So Hard
We slid into our chairs on New Year’s Eve, wine glasses and hearts full, ready to break open the board games that sat expectantly on the table, and get the party started as the rest of the family laughed and buzzed around us. But light as the atmosphere was, my dear friend—who carries the eminent title of Sister-Friend—and I were still feeling the weight of the weeks that had led up to this moment, and understanding the importance of those to come. And each of us knew that the other felt it. “So what’s your word?” she asked me lightly but quizzically. She had been texting our other sister-friend, who lives far too far away yet is the indispensable third party in our soul-baring and heart-binding struggle-through-life-together-trio. They had been sharing their chosen ‘word’ for the year, a recently popular concept in which one single word carries enough meaning to encompass one’s lofty resolution and focus for the entire year to come. “You know I don’t do just one word,” I repl