As we welcome 2025, I’m not going to use this blog to give a lecture about New Year’s resolutions or to suggest that you make elaborate promises to yourself. I realize that living with cancer often renders such gestures trivial and that your life is probably being planned week-by-week or month-by-month. Instead, I’ve chosen to share some of my favorite motivational quotations, may these compelling words make the beginning of another year a little less daunting for you and may the theme of infinite hope provide you with strength and inspiration for your cancer journey.

A letter from poet Ralph Waldo Emerson to his daughter

“Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

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Anthem a song by Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be

Ah, the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold, and bought again
The dove is never free

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

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“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
A famous quote from Abraham Lincoln

This quote from Lincoln emphasizes the importance of taking control of our own lives and shaping our own future. It suggests that we more often than not have the power to create our own destiny through our actions and choices. It’s an urgent call to action, reminding us that we are in control of our own lives and that we can shape our future. It encourages us to be proactive and take action to achieve our goals, rather than waiting for things to happen to us. Above all this quotation suggests that our future is not completely predetermined, but rather something that we can actively influence and shape. It maintains that in most situations we have the power to change our circumstances and create a better future for ourselves.