Each new year can bring with it hope, optimism, and a chance to start over. Do you think?

I would say that yes, those things are all possible. However, for parents that are raising a child with special needs (or perhaps one that just really struggles) each new year can also bring feelings of regret, despair and lack of clarity. I know, at least for myself- raising a special needs child- I can have those feelings at the beginning of each new year.

Often, at the end of a year, I look back and reflect- as many do. I reflect on what went right, but also what went wrong. Then of course, there's the "what didn't happen at all".

That's the regret part. What didn't happen at all.

And, perhaps, what "didn't happen" is because it wasn't the right time, or the right place, or I didn't have the energy to make it happen. Do you ever feel like that? If you're reading this and are a parent of a child who struggles- do you ever feel like that? Seriously, I would like to know.

These last few years, with COVID and all- have been so strange, and so discombobulated, it's a wonder any of us are even still standing! All parents were hit hard with new parenting "requirements" these last few years, and those with special needs most likely struggled even more.

Right now I sit at the precipice of 2022. I am at the precipice and holding a really big, new thing in my hands.

I'm holding my new company- Brain FUNdamentals LLC.

And you know what? This year- instead of feelings of regret, despair, and lack of clarity; I choose hope, optimism and a chance to start over.

I choose it for me.

I choose it for my family.

I choose it for my struggling son.

And I would like to pass that "choosing" on to all of you as well.

I hope that you have a wonderful new year filled with optimism. And I hope that you enter this new year with a feeling that you have a chance to start over- in whatever way that means to you.

It's almost 2022.

Let's embrace it.

All of us.

Together.