I have a lot of poopy-pants, anti-establishment opinions about New Years Eve. An arbitrary date based on nothing but the Vatican’s desire to sever our connection to the Earth, squashing the relevance of celestial events from our sense of time. My New Year has always been Winter Solstice, or the ‘Birth of the Sun’. An actual celestial event that makes sense…
AND also, because I’m a sucker for an excuse to get sentimental and create meaning, I’ll wax poetic about my hopes for 2026.
2025 was hard, folks. I don’t often bitch about it as a part of my human experience, but solo-parenting is just hard. My kiddo is amazing. She’s really committed herself to playing the violin and being an academic superstar. And, we’re also tweening, simultaneously, while my body is experiencing what I am now affectionately calling ‘Cougar Puberty’. It’s a lot of hormonal chaos up in our house, without a lot of space between us. I’m perimenopausal, raising a powerful budding witch, while also Pitta af. I teach classes on emotional regulation because I need it as much as anyone.
Perimenopause get’s a real bad rap, so I do wanna add that this whole hormonal dance we’re doing is also really beautiful. As my daughter steps into herself, I’m being blown away by her self-awareness and emotional clarity. As I step into middle age, I’m feeling truly initiated: initiated into true self-love and ‘readiness’, knowing the difference between confidence and ego and deeply trusting where I sit within that spectrum, stepping into my service fully and with clarity, knowing who I am and what I’m worth, cultivating true discernment around what deserves my ‘give a fuck’.
2025: I started a new job that I absolutely love- teaching art to kids. I completed my college courses and began my internship in the mental health department of a rehab facility. And as the year wrapped up, right around my 46th birthday, five really magical things happened: We moved to a home with a creek in our backyard, walking distance to downtown. We extended our family to include 2 baby kitties who we are now completely obsessed with. I started teaching community somatic, experiential workshops. My client base for grief support doubled. And finally, a real highlight of my year, I co-facilitated a truly nourishing ceremonial event called Grief Dance with close to 50 participants.
I have deep respect for people who can just go to work, get their paycheck, and live their passion outside of work. I have never been able to do that, and it’s taken me up until this point to activate my life and career to a point where my ‘job’ is aligned with my gifts and desire to be of service.
So, moving forward into 2026…
I’m actually on fire for this next year and all it has in store. My career is taking off, and for the first time maybe in my whole entire life, I’m excited to be busy with work. Holding others in their process is one of the biggest honors of my life. My private practice is where my heart is, and I’m looking forward to many new clients this year. I’m excited to dive into my internship and start leading recovery groups. I’d like to start leading Grief Support groups again, step deeper into the microdosing educator role, and offer more workshops (because those have been really nourishing). 2026 will also be the year I host my first retreat in Bali! I can’t begin to speak to how purposeful and important this feels. In my personal life, I’m looking forward to stepping deeper into community. I feel like, since I moved here, I’ve been so driven to ground my schedule and my financial life that there hasn’t really been space to make friends. This home we moved into needs a lot of work to feel like ‘home’, but it’s in the works. I’m excited to dial it in and start inviting people over. My family has been unbelievably supportive in helping me land and feel at home here on the Central Coast. I still miss Sebastopol and Bali, but I’m also happy to just be here right now.
So, resolutions? Nah. I’ve got passion projects, and what I want also wants me. I’m really just grateful to show up for this one.
