Strange Times in 2025 & Spreading Joy in 2026

As 2025 comes to an end like any other year I reflect on it, and the word that comes to my mind is strange.

It was a strange year, not just in terms of where the world was going, but on the personal friend front as well.

It was my son's wedding. The world required me to go fast, to speed up. The mother in me, the planner in me, the initiator wanted to do too much in a small amount of time, and yet my heart desired to slow down, to savor every single minute of this experience for my soul, to fill it up, to absorb, to live in all the emotions that were coming up in this experience. And that wasn't the only juxtaposition.

The relationships were shifting, new relationships were forming. It brought so much joy and happiness. Then some were shifting, changing, and brought their own grief.

The other common thread throughout the year was community. Community is something I set a theme for 2025 when I reflected on 2024 around this time last year, I wanted to develop more authentic and nurturing relationships. I was in this phase of my life, the sandwich I had become this part of the sandwich phase of my life where I'm not this, but I'm not that either, where there are people who are younger than me who wanting my attention, and the people older than me also wanting my attention, and yet nobody really cares.

And I wanted to build my own communities of circle. Some fell into my lap, like Vivatude. It brought me in touch with other women who were in the same state. Wiser. It was so many dimensions of experience and so many other facets that I was unaware of. I built rich communities.

The wedding itself brought me close to the relations. After a long time, we were connecting again and connecting for joy. And boy oh boy, the old times, the beautiful times, we were reliving those but at the same time, these special nurturing circles were feeding me. One being my own mindful momentum podcast, I revived and as a result, met such wonderful, wise people.

Not only did I bring these practices to others, but I enriched my own life. The micro moments of joy. How simple is that, and how easily we forget when we get overwhelmed, we just need to bring one micro moment of joy. I have a running list now. I keep adding items to that, and I say, Oh, I just need to refer to this list. Then I can come back and do maybe item number 34 today, and bring more joy. The vagus nerve reset in the middle of the night, I turn and I'll find find my jaw clenched and I just. Relax it and suddenly release whatever tension was due to a bad dream or whatever was going on in my head, and I turn to the other side, and I'm back to a deep sleep again, richness, richness from other people in my circle, the community, enriched me.

I also joined the local Toastmasters, and this is the first time I'm not having elaborate notes and memorizing to speak, and I haven't been there for that long, but just the confidence of standing up and speaking for two minutes often is bringing this sense of impromptu speaking. And of course, you have thoughts you put together, but you don't need this word by word notes there is a lot of wisdom within you. Just have to let it, let it out. The other aspect of my life that I noticed is that I was in transition. Oh, my transitions, not just a transition. And it wasn't a linear transition, like I always refer to William Bridges model of transition, the endings, the messy middle and the new beginnings.

And it wasn't just like something had ended and I was now in the messy middle, and then I was waiting to get into the new beginnings. It wasn't like that. It was as if multiple transitions were running in parallel. Some were ending, some were in Messy middle, and some were in stages of new formation that made life complex and rich, and at the same time, it reminds me of waves. Lives are not linear. They are not even chapters. They are waves. Some are going up and some are going down and they are crashing, and there's just so much going on. And you learn, you learn to be present with all this.

My own body was testing me again and again. My old injury came back and pushed me. What I felt initially was pushed me to the corner, and then I felt, Oh, this is yet another transition. What if we look at it just like that, just like a wave, and not wait for the next chapter to be there or a next phase to arrive? This is it. This is it. This is how life is, and what if we can stay present and comfortable with all of this? And that, to me, was my biggest gift of this life, or rather, of this year, the biggest gift to be comfortable, as is in this moment, in this being, this is who I am.

I won't arrive tomorrow. It's not like I can wait for all of my life to arrive. I have arrived in this moment, and tomorrow I'll arrive, and I'll be different, but I shall arrive again and again and again, but not waiting for things to fall into its place and something magical will appear, because magic is happening right now, and for The first time in my life I dropped all notes, I dropped all conditions, I dropped all assumptions. I dropped all waiting to be. I and here I am present with you right now as I look forward to the next year.

And of course, I do look forward to next year. I have dreams, I have goals, I have milestones. But more than dreams, goals and milestones, I ask myself, “How do I want to be present? How do I want to show up right now, tomorrow, day after and 2026 What do I want to bring to the world? What is it that needs to shift within me? What's, what's, what's the theme that can guide me?” And you know, what comes up is joy. Is pure joy, if I can bring smile to a few more faces …and why a few? More, millions?

If my words, my wisdom, my experiences, my being where I am in life and showing up fully can bring smile to other faces. My life is worth it is meaningful, if I can help people relax in their own being and don't have to wait until my age to drop their notes of what, how they should, would, could, my Life would be worth it, and that's what I intend to be, and that's the theme I want to stay with me — Joy.

Let's bring joy. Let's bring so much joy that we can cry. We can cry with joy, and let's just wish for that. Let's take a moment to pause here.

Pause with me. May we all know joy. So let's set up an intention for all of us. May we all know joy. May we share joy, spread it. Spread it. Spread it. Spread it. Let your smile light up others. Spread it. May we become joy and may joy find us where we are! May we know joy! May we share joy! May we become joy and may joy find us wherever we are. Thank you for being a part of this journey, and we'll keep spreading joy.

Happy 2026!