2025 Reflections

Happy New Year.

2025 was an amazing year –
though it tested my mettle
at times.

It gave generously,
then asked for patience.
It offered light,
and occasionally checked
whether I could carry it.

Some days were simple.
Some were lessons
disguised as weight.

What carried me through
wasn’t strength on display,
but the quieter kind –
the kind that sits with you
and doesn’t rush the hard parts.

I’m grateful for the family and friends
who stood beside
Natalie and I,
steady when the ground shifted,
present when answers were thin.

This was the year
I stopped mistaking resilience
for doing everything alone.

I wrote from inside the moment –
not after the dust had settled,
not once the meaning was clear,
but while it was still unfolding.

From platforms and pavements,
from pauses that lingered too long,
from days that asked questions
and didn’t explain themselves.

Some poems kept me going.
Some reminded me why I should.
Most were both.

And as the year turns,
this is what remains:

Gratitude,
without illusion.

Hope,
without denial.

A commitment to keep showing up –
to people,
to truth,
to the work.

Long may it continue.
Not the testing,
but the love that answered it.

Happy New Year.