Ruth Moon Mari was looking forward to the new year. She planned to finish her book manuscript just before the end of 2021 and spend the next few weeks preparing for the arrival of her first child.

Instead, she found herself overwhelmed with work, asking for an extension on her book, and hearing her doctor say that she needed to be induced three weeks early.

“I am not ready to welcome a new year with reflection and peace,” Mari admits. “Instead, I am heralding 2022 with a chaotic cacophony of old and new, restoration and triage.”

This seems to be the norm for many of us this year. Whether Omicron disrupted our holiday plans or we’ve already scrapped our resolutions in favor of a Netflix binge, many of us are wondering where that new year's spark of energy is hiding.

Rather than looking for grand solutions to our problems, Mari encourages us to look for grace in the mundane. This may not be our most productive season, and our plans may seem to be laughing at us at times. But the joy of simple, quiet grace? It is, at all times, ours for the taking.