I went for a long run today, the last one before heading back to my 7th grade English classroom following a two-week winter break.

It was a timely and restorative break for many reasons, but mostly because I reconnected with many dear friends and family I hadn’t really spoken with in far too long.  We had deep, meaningful conversations about purpose, about making mistakes, about work/life balance, about the importance of putting relationships at the forefront of everything we do.  These human connections filled my cup so much that I realized how empty it had gotten.  Or perhaps I should say how empty I had allowed it to get.

Today I ran by a railroad bridge I pass all the time.  This time there was a new message I had never seen before spray painted on it in red letters: SOON WE WILL BE FREE.

As I continued down the trail, I couldn’t stop thinking about what the message said.  Who wrote it?  What did it mean?  Was it someone in despair?  After all, it probably wouldn’t be the first cry for help written on a railroad bridge.

Then the word “We” in the message came into focus.  Not I, but WE.

There’s a thing I sometimes do when I am faced with challenges, and it’s isolating and trying to deal with it all on my own.  Instead of tapping into the empathy and wisdom and experience that surrounds me, I tell myself I don’t have time for a text or a call or a coffee or a lunch, and I leave those relationships collecting dust on the shelf and try to muddle through life by myself.

That’s a choice.

There is freedom in knowing that I don’t have to do it all, that I have a whole village in my life on standby.  But it takes me reaching out my hand.  It requires me to remember the WE.

I’m going to try to practice that better in 2025.