To 2026, To Freedom

January 1st marks the beginning of a New Year for our calendar, but it is not an actual New Year. The Earth wakes up in the spring, and that is when I acknowledge the new beginnings on an earthly scale.  

On a personal scale, my New Year begins in February at my birthday… in the dead of winter, when I partake in the ritual of gathering around fire and making a wish for the possibilities of another spin around the sun. In this quiet, before the Earth returns anew, I shed the skin I wore the year before.  I emerge from the scalding hot water of my shower and gaze at my new form.  I take in the lines that have etched themselves upon my face, eroding my youth and replacing it with wisdom.  I gaze into my eyes and reflect on the year before.  The tears it shed, the laughter my heart experienced shows itself in the deepening creases at the corners of my weary eyes.  How far we’ve come, how far we still have to go.  

Each step, each lesson… a blessing.  Even the painful ones I have learned, hold the capacity for great change and freedom.  

This winter will bring a milestone.  Although one could argue that every birthday is a milestone, a testament to our unwavering desire to not only survive but thrive.  But… this year, for me, will be extra special and bittersweet.  It marks the end of a cycle, doors closed, hearts realigned, and the beginning of something new.  

Uncharted waters.  Fear.  Hope.  

I look back on the years and shed a tear.  How naive I have been as I barreled toward this milestone, but the journey is what makes a life a life, so we might as well throw caution to the wind and experience fully. Naivete and all.  There are no second chances.  We don’t get do overs.  All we get are chances to learn, to pivot, and to grow.  

How fortunate are we that get to dance under the starlight of this world?  A billion possibilities converged at the right moment to make each and every one of us.  Why then do we waste our days away on trivial pursuits of material gains that we will never take with us when we leave? 

While January 1st, in all intents and purposes, for me, is another day.  It’s still a beginning.  I start with a word.  An affirmation, a prayer.  For what I seek in the new year.  

This year, it’s freedom.  Freedom from the mundane monotony that we have been sold.  Freedom to embrace the mundane that I seek out. The simple pleasures that may bore others but make my heart sing. Freedom to laugh, to cry, to thrive.  Freedom to be safe and sound in this divine temple that is my body.  Freedom to love and be loved fully.  

When I blow out the candles this winter, I am not making wishes that fall to the floor like ashes of lost possibilities.  I am making plans.  I am claiming what is mine.  I am choosing me. 

It is a hell of a ride, this life.  I don’t know how much of it I will package into 1,000 words or less, but I do know I’m going to chase freedom with wild abandonment; and as the world that we all knew fades away in fire, blood, and pain, I pray you all rise from the ashes freer than you were the day before.  

Have a happy New Year and remember, there is no dress rehearsal.  Only today. 

Copyright(c) 2026 Rayven Holmes