Another spin around around the sun, another year gone. Just a blip since the beginning of time being counted, but another significant year for each of the billions of us humans currently living on this shared planet. I thought 2024 was hard (in terms of personal life and growth), but 2025 managed to feel even harder, though in other ways, also really wonderful.

The relationships we have while on this earth are what makes our time here meaningful and beautiful, yet they can also hurt. A book I’m still getting through, Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn, reminded me that relationships require self-understanding and self-sufficiency to work, and that is becoming increasingly clear to me. But self-sufficiency (or autonomy, whic is also important) is not the same as independence, a kind of individualistic streak whereby we are our own isolated entities. Rather, there is an interdependence, but on our own we are still sufficient, with enough care and love for ourselves to be able to then give that care and love to others around us.

Given how there is already so much to deal with on our own and with our relationships with others, I don’t get why people in power around the world desire to add to the explicit suffering with wars and violence and all of that. It probably has always been the case, but because I pay more attention to world politics now than when I was younger, it just seems the world is getting a darker, more dangerous place. Of course there are pockets of beauty and light, in the everyday person on the street and everyday life, the small shared moments with loved ones, family and friends. Even amidst all the physical and mental suffering of Palestinians and others in terrorised spaces, they still find small joys.

May 2026 be a better, brighter, more joyous year, filled with challenges that strengthen ourselves and our faith and trust in the world and the people around us.