Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do.
Jean de La Bruyere
Your Year of Testing the Frame. This is the year you find out which of your firmly held positions are load-bearing walls and which ones are just furniture you forgot to rearrange. A no that you've delivered automatically for years gets held up to the light in March, and what you discover surprises you a little, in the best direction. One principle you inherited rather than chose gets set down on the table and examined, and either it earns its place back or it doesn't, and either way you come out lighter. By late summer, your clean refusals feel different, chosen rather than reflexive, and the people around you notice the difference even before you name it. This year your boundaries become genuinely yours. The only kind that hold.