2020 End-of-Year Reflection

Friends,

As you reflect on the past year, what are you most grateful for? We at SPRC are grateful for you.

In 2020, your collective efforts advanced the suicide prevention field amid multiple historic challenges. This year has highlighted the critical importance of our work, as well as our capacity for resilience in the face of adversity. We are so grateful for all you do to save lives and reduce suffering.

Expressing gratitude is one science-backed way to foster well-being—acknowledging what we have lost is another. Whether it is a loved one or a way of life, let’s make space to grieve our losses. Because as helpers, we need to extend the same compassion to ourselves that we do to others. And while we can’t forget what has happened to us, we can reach for gratitude and forgiveness.

This year may have been hard, but we won’t let it harden our hearts.

As the seasons change, now is the time to reflect on the past but also to set intentions and gather energy for the year ahead. Just as our current prevention efforts will help reduce the pandemic’s long-term mental health impact, the choices we make now will help inform how we weather the future.

Let’s use this time to renew our commitment to suicide prevention and cultivate qualities such as gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, and humility that can sustain us through darkness, with hope as our guiding light.

Wishing you and your loved ones health and happiness in the new year,

Dolores Subia BigFoot

SPRC Co-director