2025 New Year’s Message from CEO Dale Melton

You may remember that a practice I’ve developed over the years is to identify three words or phrases that provide a focused and disciplined approach to the New Year: a holy trinity of inspiration, motivation, and celebration.

As we begin the promising and productive New Year of 2025, I invite you to reflect on the following phrases with me. I have also included a bonus fourth phrase to deepen the meaning and purpose behind these phrases and to enhance the value of our interactions with those we encounter.

Don’t Postpone JOY!  

Michelle and I spotted this bumper sticker while visiting Asheville last February. This message resonates with me differently today as Western North Carolina rebuilds after Hurricane Helene!

Why do we postpone joy in our lives? Oftentimes, it is because we are waiting for some accomplishment, level of success, or validation from others. Or we miss opportunities to fully appreciate the blessings that surround us. We allow joy to slip through our fingers as if it were an illusive gift while we focus instead on the obstacles and problems in Life and throughout our daily lives.

“Don’t Postpone Joy!” reminds us to spread our arms wide to embrace the beauty, wonder, and contentment that often are only an arm’s length away.

More importantly, DO NOT Postpone JOY—because you never know if someone around you desperately needs YOUR Joy to fill their void.

Are We Doing All We Can?

This is a phrase I learned from my friend, Ken Partin, who served 40 years as President & CEO of Givens Communities, a multi-site, not-for-profit organization that serves people in Western North Carolina. To fully appreciate the power of these words, you need to know that Ken and Givens Communities have contributed a lot in their collective ministries to expand the possibilities for aging well.

As its website states, “Givens provides more than four walls and a roof to our residents.  The communities offer rich and meaningful experiences and support services that empower residents to maintain independence. Givens’ affordable communities address homelessness, food insecurities, and health and wellness in a clean and safe environment. Residents live fully and enjoy meaning in life.”

A servant leader who never rested on laurels, Ken closed meetings with a powerful, transformative question:  Are We Doing All We Can?  Never resting, never assuming enough was enough. Leaders who have followed Ken have continued this practice, leading to Givens being recognized as one of the top 10 Life Plan Communities in the United States.

So, I have to ask myself, and I invite you to consider, will we do all we can in 2025?  Let us hold each other accountable for this proactive stance and perspective and discover the resulting blessings.

If everything seems dark, look again,

You May Be the Light!

(attributed to Rumi, a 13^th century poet)

We will face uncertainties, unknowns, challenges, disasters, and significant losses. Darkness may reside with us in the year ahead, and it may feel overwhelming.

But there is Good News:

“The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.” (John 1:1-5 – The Message)

Even in the midst of deep, unrelenting darkness, we are called to LOOK within and recognize that Light resides within us and then—collectively and individually—be the LIGHT for the Other and all Others in our lives. We may be the ONLY source of Light that this city, county, state, nation, and world desperately needs!

So much darkness.
Offer Whatever Light You Can!

Sandra Boynton, a cartoonist, children’s author, songwriter, and counterproductive kazooist, creatively captured my New Year’s role and purpose in this cartoon.  Just as we are.  Just who we are. Wherever we are, the world begs us to please OFFER whatever LIGHT we can!

As Jackie DeShannon’s 1969 song testifies. . . “And the world will be a better place.  And the world will be a better place for you and me.  You just wait and see. . .”

A truly expectant, hope-filled New Year can result in Joy and motivate us to give ALL that we can for one another—and the Other.  A promising New Year will hold Light and Warmth and Brilliance and inspire us to ensure there is always Light and Warmth and Brilliance for everyone.

Michelle and I pray that you and yours have a wonderful start to a promising New Year!

Peace and Prosperity be Yours in 2025,

Dale