For 2026 — Make Living Good A Priority

“I want the name and address of your plastic surgeon, your skin care specialist, your dietitian, chef, your primary care doctor, your exercise coach, your mental health people, and all of the others that made you look so damn good, girl,” Beverly said to Sannoya, her eyes all over her entire body.

Sannoya stared at her, annoyed by the attention she was getting for speaking loudly in a public place.

“Oh, come on, I want to look as young and as damn good as you,” she went on, glaring at her in admiration and shock. “God knows we have been to hell and back many times. Not seeing you for more than ten years tells me that you have achieved the level of success that allows you to look as if you have stopped time.”

“No human can stop time,” Sannoya’s annoyance spoke.

“You have, and I need all of the addresses of the ones who helped you.”

“They don’t have an address,” Sannoya said.

“So how can I get in contact with them?”

“You are in contact with them by how you live.”

“You are confusing me,” Beverly’s anger edged closer.

“Life is the one who made me look this way.”

“Ah!” she snorted. “How did life make you look like that?”

Sannoya sighed and glanced around at the people staring at her, awaiting her response. She smiled, then said, “My priority was living good. Yours were looking good. Life showed me that if I live good, I will look good at a cheaper cost.”

“Are you mocking me?” she demands.

“Examine our lives and how we live them. You make the fashion and the beauty culture industry wealthier.”

“Being beautiful didn’t matter to you?”

“Because looking good means nothing if I have nothing.”

“I don’t care if I have nothing. As long as I look good, I am happy,” Beverly states.

“But how will you maintain your beauty routine?”

“I will find a way.”

“Well,” Sannoya said, giving her eye contact, “they don’t get a cent from me. You make the health care industry happier and richer, too, by not taking care of your health. I eat healthy and exercise, so they don’t get a cent from me by poisoning my body and mind with their drugs.”

“That’s all you did? There has to be more,” her curiosity demands.

“You think I can bribe life to pay me back for what I didn’t earn?” Sannoya said, shrugging her shoulders. “Life pays us back without prejudice and discrimination.”

“Damn!’ she exclaimed. “Life is a damn good plastic surgeon, because you are older than me!” her envy cried out.

“And she has body parts that are still standing, and you don’t,” a voice to her left said with a chuckle.

“You mean you look good because you live good?” someone else asked.

“Living good pays you back, so does living bad,” Sannoya said as all eyes turned to her. “That’s the best way to stay healthy, too.”

Silence spoke, connecting hearts, souls, and understanding to truth and reality.

Then someone asks, “You are really older than her?”

Sannoya enlightens, “Our ages shouldn’t have to speak for us. How we live should.”

“Most humans can’t afford for the world to know that’s how they are living,” someone said.

“But life already does it. Only humans with empathy and heightened awareness can see life as it unfolds in our daily actions, choices, and decisions,” a voice facing them adds.

“It hurts too because it forced many of us to go back into our lives and relive the hell of our mistakes, refueling the pain of regrets,” wisdom spoke.

“So, all I have to do to look as good as you is to live a good life?” a young voice asked.

Sannoya followed the voice to see a young boy about sixteen or younger, with thick-lensed glasses resting on his nose, which seemed heavy as he balanced them, pushing them back from the center of the frame. A kind smile on his face as he removed his baseball cap, showing curly, thick black hair that needed to be trimmed.

With a broad smile, she said, “It works for me. I am aware that life will pay me back. Not with wealth and power, but with wisdom and common sense.”

“You don’t want wealth and power?” his innocence questioned.

Smiling wider, she answered, “Wealth and power are temporary, wisdom and common sense are unlimited and endless for those living a good life.”

“But how do you manage to maintain it, because humans really do make life difficult for a kind heart,” he said, grabbing everyone’s attention.

With raised brows, Sannoya enlightened, “When life tests me for kindness, thoughtfulness, patience, consideration, and simple acts that can heal and help, I don’t fail.”

“What do you do when it tests you for cruelty, hatred, greed, dishonesty, etc?” someone else inquired.

“I fail those,” she said with ease.

“But how will you know the difference?” he asked.

“My conscience, guts, instincts, and pain will warn me,” she answered.

“Because you are aware, right?” someone else questioned.

“That’s another one of the payments of living a good life,” Sannoya said.

“So, living good really is better than looking good?”

“It works for me,” Sannoya admits.

For your new year, make living good a priority.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.