Another birthday is here, and I am still grateful to see it. As I enter into this next trip around the sun, I feel—different. Last year, I was excited; I had several celebrations throughout the month, and the joy was oozing out of my pores. This year, I have planned very little to celebrate. I will have time with my family, and maybe a few lunch dates with friends, but that’s about it. I guess that’s how it goes, sometimes the mood changes and the vibe is different. I feel reflective, I feel peaceful, I feel grateful, and I feel ready. A transition is happening in me that I could not have anticipated. 

I realize it’s a gift to see another year, another day, another hour, another minute, and another second. Each is precious because we are not in control of whether we see another one of those markers of time. I am choosing to live being fully present, and I am choosing to dream big. As my publication embraces its identity as your local health and wellness resource, I want to be very specific about what that means. In a world where health and wellness can mean something different to each person, I didn’t want our readers or the community to have to interpret our mission. Let it be known that my heart and my focus are on the health of the women in our community. If we have healthy women, we have healthy communities; if we have a healthy county, we continue to make Maryland a place where we value and care for women. 

All of Columbia Inspired’s content will fall into one of four categories that are directly tied to four pillars of wellness. Move speaks to our physical wellness, Play is linked to social wellness, Breathe is related to mental wellness, and Dream connects to financial wellness. I believe that these four pillars will help improve our lives in significant ways, even if we only focus on just one. The objective is to provide you, the readers and followers, with information that is practical and can be implemented into your daily life the moment you read it. Something simple you can put into practice right away. The “how” of living our lives has become too complicated, and when there are too many steps towards anything, they become barriers to entry vs. pathways to success. Columbia Inspired is here to make the path less complicated.