Once More Unto The Breach

What a difficult journey this year has been. We have seen more pain, more setbacks, and more division. Many of us have endured harsh personal challenges.

Just Monday, I got the news my disease has reached my bones and at 54 years of age I now have osteoporosis to go along with the chronic pain and fatigue, the dysautonomia that continues to take more of me every day.

These last few hours of 2025 have me more than ready for it to be over. As I close out this latest circuit around the sun, I find myself in a very familiar place these days, bed. I just finished the last episode of Stranger Things.

I am left with a few thoughts on what comes next.

If you thought 2025 was tough, I have news for you, 2026 will be tougher. We all have unfinished personal journeys and we have some very difficult common struggles ahead of us.

I am tired. However, my resolve and determination remains intact. I can’t tell you I look forward to the battles ahead. I don’t. I am closer to the abyss every day, but then aren’t we all?

This next year is not a new beginning. It isn’t a renewal. 2026 won’t be any of the things we have imagined the new year to be in times past.

But it won’t be without joy. It won’t be without love. And it will not be void of kindness. It will just be hard to get there.

With less than an hour left on this difficult year, I say to you,

Once more unto the breach, my friends.

And there IS a breach. This time of hate and suffering,  division and apathy is not sustainable. We have already seen the darkness wane and through the cracks, light is beginning to show, heroes are starting to rise. The next year will be tough but through it all, our empty spaces can be made whole again with one condition, we love each other.

I don’t know if you have been watching Stranger Things but I personally connected with it as a Gen Xer who graduated high school the same year as the lead characters in the show, 1989. Tonight was the series finale. I am already hearing mixed reactions just a few hours after it premiered.

Don’t worry, no spoilers here.

I will say what the most profound message I took from the series as a whole and especially its final episode is. That message is the same message you can find in every post I make. We are all connected. No one succeeds on their own.

So hold tight to your friends and loved ones. Try to be in the moment and truly present for those around you. Find joy in the mundane and the extraordinary alike. Carry each other. Carry each other.

“One love, one blood. One life, you got to do what you should.
One life, with each other.
Sisters, brothers.

One life but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One”
U2

So say we all.

I will leave you with the same song used to close out the show. Ok so maybe a small spoiler…

We can be heroes. Each of us. In 2026 we must be!

Be love. Be kind. We are all connected.

Life is better with a soundtrack.