I don’t know the reflection process for others but as my birth and the year all follow the same turns around the sun, I reflect in a very linear and chronological way. 2025 was a year of work for me. It tasked me with chores and feats that tested my emotions, my psyche, my finances, physically and any sense of peace. All I could report to people who asked was that I was exhausted. Worn thin. Worn out. Worn and weary. Beyond kicking my ass, it got in some good jabs to my kidneys, a gut punch or two, took me out at the knees. And it was all things that simply had to get done. There were no alternate paths or mantras to reset the rules. It just asked me to push through…in fact ask is false because that presumes a choice. There were no options or at least no realistic ones, things had to be addressed, had to get done, battled and won.

It wasn’t adversarial, no enemy to overcome, no malice to uncover or culprit to apprehend. So I didn’t win, there wasn’t anything to win or learn or gain. I practiced gratitude when I needed answers, trusted my grit with each abrasion, and scaled it with my fingers bleeding and waited to scab over hoping for a lull before the next. And I have no clue if 2026 will be any different, not from any pessimism or even sadness, just pulling myself back up, dusting myself off and thankful for the fight I have all the while wishing I maybe didn’t have to push it right up the edge of my limit.