I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted after Christmas! I love the season, but there always seems a million last-minute things to do before Christmas day, and then the day itself is always jam-packed with family and friends, and by Boxing Day, I’m ready for a two-day nap!

I do hope your Christmas was lovely, if that’s what you celebrate, or your Hanukkah, which started the night of Dec. 25.

But before we reach the new year, I’m ready for a bit of a rest. I need to have what my Granddad always called the “space in between,” when Christmas is over and the new year is not quite here. He used to say it’s “the moment the snowflake is falling,” — not yet on the ground, silent, a moment’s beauty and peace.

It’s also time for me to take stock a bit of this past year, and for me at least, there’s a bit to unpack.

I am not a New Year’s resolution person, because things always change and the resolutions will not be the same in three months’ time. But I am one who needs to look back at where I was last January and see the lessons and the improvements.

There will always have been challenges in the past year, even a few things that, initially, I might not have been sure I could overcome. But I always did.

But I never did, or do, that alone. I have an amazing husband and family that always helps me across the hurdles, and I have a few dear friends that I know I can count on, in times both good and bad. And I am surrounded by a great work crew that pulls together as a team, a tremendous gift.

There have been accomplishments as well, and I never reach those alone, either.

I’m just not one who thinks in terms of isolation, and I never believe that any of us gets through this life alone, even when we say we do. Because we don’t exist in a vacuum. We just don’t.

I’ve said it before and it may get tiresome, but truly, we are all we have. The operative word in that sentence being “we.” I supposed there are some rare folks who live in isolation, but not many. Humans are designed, according to medical and psychological experts, to live together. We are designed to live with one another, to connect, to communicate and to help and support one another. We are not meant to live our lives alone.

Which means the things we experience, good or bad, are not things we are meant to experience alone.

We learn from our history, from the explorers, creators, designers in all fields as we go forward, building on what has been discovered to create ever better, ever stronger, ever more helpful creations. Mostly, at any rate. Sometimes we go off track a bit and take things in the wrong direction, but we learn from those forays, too.

I just believe all that we experience, we experience either with others or because of others and we need to remember, we are not alone, even when we might want to believe we are.

Yes, there are times when we want all the credit. We have to admit that. We humans can be selfish, and that beautiful spotlight is hard to resist. But credit where credit is due — somewhere back down the line, we stood on someone’s shoulders at some point.

I’m looking back over the last year, sometimes with my hands over my eyes, a little ashamed, a little embarrassed, and with a few tears, just as we all do. But I’m also looking back with eyes wide open, smiling, laughing and celebrating.

But wherever I look in this past year, I’m also seeing all who were there along the way, on the sidelines, in the shadows, or right by my side. I see you all, and I thank you for helping me get through the last 365 to this point. Even if you’re not in the next 365, that’s OK. You played a role that was necessary and you have my gratitude.

For those who are always with me, I hope you’re dressed and ready for the next year. It never seems to be a simple quest with me, but I can promise in the end the ride will have been worth it.

But for this moment, I’m going for the nap, the calm before the storm begins again, and I wish you the same moment of rest, of peace, of the space in between.

As the snowflake falls, I hope you have a moment to enjoy the silence and the beauty.

And then — here’s to a blessed 2025.

Elisabeth Strillacci covers crime, courts, Spencer, East Spencer and Kannapolis for the Salisbury Post.