At this beginning of a new year, I am overwhelmed with joy, excitement, opportunity and most of all, thankfulness.  I am joyful that in the coming months we might just come out of this lockdown we been in for almost a year; and that I will once again see friends and family in person, visit with them as long as I want to, laugh with them and hug them unencumbered by protective gear.

I’m excited about the manifestation of the good and useful skills I learned this year, such as the new dance I call The Pivot. It involves turning on a dime and dealing with something familiar in a completely unfamiliar way in order to accomplish the goal at hand. The quicker I do this new dance, the better I feel about my accomplishment. I love The Pivot; it has given me flexibility of mind, body and spirit beyond anything I could have imagined, led me to new and exciting business ventures and better physical health, and significantly increased my capacity to get things done through better organization and efficiency.

Since I learned The Pivot, I’ve embraced just about any new opportunity that involves artificial intelligence, including doing research to transcribing audio blogs, developing social media content and using a digital assistant. Now instead of running the other way when I hear the term AI, I always, always look to see what cool things that particular program or software can do for me.

I am thankful to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose birthday we just finished celebrating, that everyone I know was here to celebrate Him. And I am just as thankful to Him for hearing my prayers for those families who have lost loved ones, who have lost jobs and who have been lost and left behind as a result of this pandemic. I am thankful for the promises He made to us in the Bible, our instruction manual, and for His demonstrated ability to keep them. He has promised to supply all our needs, and He’s told us not to be afraid because He’s with us and will strengthen and protect us. I’m also thankful that He constantly burdens my heart about what I can do to help my neighbors. He’s led me to be generous beyond my means, contributing to groups and organizations that provide lifeline services to those adversely affected by the pandemic, and He’s shown me other novel ways to help out and contribute.

I have so much to be grateful for, yet I’m looking forward to the new normal—or as I prefer to call it—our new future. I can’t help but imagine that it will be like the floodgates have been opened; or maybe breached and overrun. I’m looking forward to what I suspect will be hundreds of thousands of people whose future workplaces will be their home offices, leading to increased profits as a result of lower overhead, and stronger families who spend more time together, and therefore get to know each other better and appreciate each other more.

I’m looking forward to the increased efficiencies of time in our workdays, as I believe we will continue to rely on video conferencing that cuts travel costs and time, results in more productive meetings and enhances collaboration. Plus, just about everything will be available digitally, again creating time efficiencies that will free us up for fun, family, learning and innovating—or just doing those projects we’ve been meaning to do forever.

I’m also looking forward to two very important global shifts that I think I already see happening. The first one is a new appreciation for essential and gig workers. Over the last year, we’ve learned just how critical they are to our physical, mental and emotional well-being, comfort and convenience. The second one—and this makes me incredibly happy—is a recognition, if not yet an appreciation, for our environment and how it is inextricably connected with our health and quality of life.

As people have had time to contemplate this new virus, I believe they recognize that this sort of thing could happen to our world again and again, and that it came from somewhere in the environment. People also have seen how much cleaner our air has been since the lockdown and experienced how physically, spiritually and emotionally healthy it is just to be in the great outdoors as a result.

So as we embark on this new year, please join me in celebrating our new future. Better yet, join me in the challenge to live a greener, healthier life on a healthy planet, and to be the change we want to see in the world.