Loving your fate, amor fati, is hardest and most useful looking backward. Marcus accepted that what happened to him was woven into the whole of things, and that fighting it only added a second suffering on top of the first. Your past year held things you would not have chosen: losses, mistakes, detours. You cannot edit them now. But you can stop being at war with them. The hard parts shaped you too; some of your steadiness was forged in exactly the seasons you would have skipped. This is not pretending the pain was good. It is choosing to fold even the rough stretches into a life you can call your own, and to walk forward from here without dragging a quarrel with the past behind you.

Inspired by the old idea of amor fati. Written by Ugo Charles.