I cannot express enough gratitude for all the gifts you have given me.

First and foremost, I am incredibly thankful for my friendships, especially with my amazing female friends. Experiencing your kindness, caring nature, intelligence, wisdom, humor, hospitality, and practical knowledge is something I never take for granted. I have learned so much from you, and I often wonder how I earned the privilege of being surrounded by such fabulous women—only God knows the answer to that.

I would also like to acknowledge a few of my male friends. You are all wonderful, and it’s always a joy to be around you. I appreciate your companionship, support, meaningful conversations, warmth, wise advice, and the fun memories we created together over the past year. Thank you all!

I want to give special thanks to Tillman, my German friend from Munich. I have relied on his expertise not only for this blog but for many things over the years. We have been friends for such a long time, through thick and thin. Thank you for everything!

Thank you, Kuba Karamara, for reaching out to me about the Blog Master online course last summer. I am enjoying it even more than I expected. I truly appreciate all the effort you put into this course and your prompt responses to my private emails before it started. In this vast online world, that personal touch is something special and it helped build my trust in you. Signing up for your school was definitely a wise decision.

I can’t overlook the significant role my psychotherapist played in starting my blog. I realize that I can be slow to understand things, and I’m sure you’ve noticed that too. But it finally dawned on me what you meant: writing is indeed a form of therapy. You were right, and I was wrong.

Then my treatment and hospital stays – if not for kindhearted, hardworking, patient medical personnel from the Hospital Of Father Pio in Przemyśl my stays in that place would have been very different and not in a good way. The neurological ward in any given hospital is not a Disneyland picnic area; to work there requires a special kind of resilience, mental and physical strength, and a big heart, and yet you manage to make it look like you are not doing anything special. Thank you and God bless!

Medical people from the rehabilitation center – always helpful and kind. Even my new physical therapist who gave me stomach cramps and diarrhea for three days straight (making me lose 3 pounds)  right at the beginning – it was nice and important getting to know you. Hope you won’t quit or be fired cos I don’t know if my oh-so-fragile nervous system can handle another turbulence like that. 

I am grateful for my long and short, domestic and abroad trips – all worked out, went as planned, and all were safe, fun, enriching, full of inspiration, and intense pleasant emotion. 

I got to speak some German in 2024 – it was rusty and lacked confidence but I have a strong feeling I’ll be learning it a lot more this coming year. 

Thank you, my friend and mother-figure Gudrun, Hering-Otzberg, Germany, for cherry-picking high-quality anthroposophical lectures for me – in writing and on YouTube and for thought-provoking, engaging discussions. You make me dig deep into my soul and I love it!

I am grateful for my immediate family. We have been through a lot of bitterness in the past for life hasn’t always been generous to us. We had a hard time communicating, yet we managed to sit at a holiday table, have peaceful conversations, laugh, and enjoy each other’s company. 

To my three lovely and amazing brothers, I know I’m not the best sister in the world, and I understand why you sometimes call me a witch or mean. However, I like to think that you get to practice the art of forgiveness and patience because of me. You might not realize it, but God has a special place in heaven for those who are patient and forgiving. So, looking at it from this perspective, YOU ARE WELCOME and God bless you all!

Lewis Howes and your “School of Greatness” – thanks for your YouTube channel and everything I’ve learned listening to your interviews with great mentors like Dr. James Doty, Dr. Tara Swart, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Lisa Miller, Kabbalah teacher David Ghiyam, and podcast host and author Mel Robbins. The fact that I am sitting here and writing this appreciation letter to the passing year is because of these interviews; they changed the way I look at things so ultimately things I look at change. Your guests share their private and professional experiences, humanity, wisdom, and incredibly sophisticated insights about the human condition – whoever has ears, let him hear!  The rest go and watch Netflix, but know this – you will be missing on something extraordinary and life-altering. 

I will be sharing my impressions and takeaways from these interviews on this blog because they have profoundly helped me deal with my illness and come to terms with some immensely challenging internal issues. Through diligent practice of the advice provided by these scientists, I have managed to achieve a sense of balance and hope.

Key concepts that I’ll keep exploring include neuroplasticity, brain health, Hebb’s Law (“neurons that fire together wire together”), and the Tetris effect. I am fascinated by what I am learning about these phenomena.

To students from my private English tutoring – you are my dream team this school year, you are all sweet, polite, and hard-working; you give me sense of purpose and meaningful work experience. Thank you all!

There was also one poignant moment this past year when it came time to pay my final respects to Rivka Finkelstein (Cherry-Hill, NJ, USA) —a beautiful, wise, and incredibly humble Jewish woman and Holocaust survivor whom I had the privilege and honor of knowing. I remember asking her what she thought was on the other side, and she replied, “I don’t know; no one has sent me a postcard from there yet.” We both laughed. That wasn’t the only time she made me feel good; she always managed to bring light into my life. I will never forget her and her husband Yankiel, who passed away few years back. I will miss their warmth, smile, hospitality, and delicious cinnamon strudel with dried fruit. Rest in peace both of you.

To my husband of almost 20 years, following my friends’ advice about not bragging about husbands’ good deeds because it spoils them rotten and jinxes the marriage, I only want to tell you I LOVE YOU, and I am grateful for all the adventures we had this year!

So thank you 2024 for all this and more. You have been saturated with goodness, creativity, healing, spiritual growth, and love. 

There are seeds planted that still need time to bloom and bear fruit in the future. Time will tell how it’s gonna turn out. Must wait. 

As I approach the new year of 2025 – I am prepared for you. Please do not throw me any curveballs; be kind and peaceful to my family and friends.

So be it!