2025. What Can We Say?

Appalachian Trail, Shenandoah National Park

2025! What can we say? It was challenging, uncertain, painful, and for some it was horrific! I wonder how many people, like me, have been wishing people a better year in 2026!

I am not here to deny or make light of the issues, injustices, and wars in this world nor the fear that uncertainty can bring. Struggles on all levels are very real. But today, on the first day of the new year, I am checking myself on how I am approaching 2026. Do I want to walk into the new year completely angry and ungrateful? Do I want to forget the beautiful things that have happened in 2025?

My challenges this year have been mainly physical with mobility issues making walking and lifting difficult along with some confusing heart issues. I think the trip to North Carolina this past August sums it up well. It's about a twelve or thirteen hour drive straight down to Cary for a big art festival that I like to do. But when I do festivals in the South, I always go a little out of my way to get my mountain fix in Shenandoah National Park on the way down, back, or both. This year it was both. The photo above shows me a few days before the show on a part of the Appalachian Trail that goes through the national park. I am not a thru-hiker. Honestly, I am not even a hiker at this moment in time. With my mobility issues much worse, I couldn't walk very far at all! But I still showed up, put my feet on the trail, and did the best I could. The day was wonderfully wet, foggy, and yellow! Honesty, not being able to walk far helped me take my time and see more on this incredibly short, but wonderful walk - definitely more than I would have seen if going for distance.

A few days later, on the second day of the festival in Cary, I had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance for sudden heart issues. It was nerve wracking while it was happening and also while driving home by myself. The PTSD of the ordeal along with nagging mobility issues caused me to cancel almost all of my shows and workshops for the rest of the year, that busy profitable time of year. So, when I hope for a better year, I am remembering those and other challenges.

But there in the middle of everything going wrong, I want to remember that I was once again able to stand in the mountains. They are still there as are the yellow coneflowers which stand tall in the fog and rain. It was an incredible, memorable day that I don't want to throw that out when I say that I hope 2026 is better.

So, I am challenging myself, and perhaps you. As the new year begins, I want to not just rush in and hope for hard things to pass and be forgotten. I also want to enter with gratitude and remember the beautiful things that I was given last year!