Where do I begin? 2025 had been one humbling year. I approached 2026 with my arms and heart wide open. I even had a double helping of my father’s traditional New Year’s Day meal hoping for extra blessings in 2026. And then the epic ice storm arrived to  Nashville leaving so many of us without heat, water, and home for days, some weeks. We hotel-hopped with our kids and dogs for a week until we could move in with my in-laws. After fixing the two pipes that burst, we turned to the heart-breaking loss of trees. I will never forget the frightening sound of two-hundred year old trees plummeting to the ground under the unsurmountable weight of ice. It’s unsettling to see the stacks and stacks of dead trunks and branches like tombstones alongside Nashville’s roads—a graveyard of lost green. A local ecologist predicts my beloved Percy Warner Park lost over 2,000 trees in two days.

A week after the storm, I fell and dislocated my left shoulder, fractured my arm, and tore my labrum. That might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. I would be lying if I said there have been no tears or unholy words spoken. Humbling has been the unfathomable kindness of family, friends and strangers. I will never forget the medic/angel who prayed the most beautiful prayer over me in the back of the ambulance.

I am leaning on the words of Nelson Mandela for inspiration, “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

Who doesn’t love a comeback story? We will all face setbacks and impossible losses. God built us to come back to life.  God cheers the underdog in each of us. In a routine post game interview, a quarterback with a resume of losses, finally achieved a win. The reporter asked what had made the difference. He said, “once you get comfortable with the uncomfortable, then you can rise.”  

We will never live in perfection here. The beginning of 2026 certainly did not go as I had planned or hoped. Yet, God did not disappoint with grace and silver linings to keep me pressing forward. Who knew my husband could do my hair!

Flannery O’Connor’s prayer is one of my favorites: “Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace, Oh Lord.”

Grateful to have my right hand to peck on the computer and return finally to you.

Live in hope,

Farrell