More than ever, 2026 will be a year of new beginnings

Every holiday season signals an end to the current year and a forward look to new beginnings. I’ve never been so aware of this as the marking of those occasions since My Favourite Husband (MFH) died.

Each year has been different. The first year was spent surviving and greedily reaching for 2022 as if a New Year would wipe out the pain of the past five months. People looked helplessly at me because, really, what can you say? But there was love. So much love. Still is. More than ever, if that's possible. 

Subsequent years have been tentative steps in creating new traditions — steps in the transition from we to me. Beautiful, shining, messy, chaotic. I think I’ve had it all and done it all. Most of it with a vow that the New Year would be brighter, that I’d get my shit together and make more thoughtful, less spontaneous decisions. I’m not a New Year’s resolution kinda girl but I do have a list titled “shit I’d like to get done this year.” I’m proud whenever anything gets crossed off. Less proud when the item is put back on. It happens to the best of us.

But this holiday season feels different. My Christmas season has been soft. Gentle. Carefully curated experiences with both others and myself. Balanced out with Hallmark movies, work, domestic adventures in baking. No pressures to do or be. No pressures to cram in visits to connect. A self-guided experience in doing whatever calls to me. Honestly, it feels really good. And, equally honest, it’s been how my last year, especially the past six months have rolled out. It feel like it’s a truthful reflection of me and who I am now. 

And, even more, I’m looking forward to the New Year. Not for its symbolism but for the fact that I’m signing up for courses and classes I’m curious about and want to try, all of them starting in January. Hand drumming. Tickets to different classical music events. Yin yoga and strength training. Am I all over the board? Of course but it’s me.

I had a recent conversation with a heart sister who told me 2025 was a Universal Nine Year in numerology. A year for completion. For endings. A year to let go of whatever serves me no longer and a focus on inner healing. I didn’t know that prior to our very recent conversation but it hits home in the deepest way. It’s what’s been happening in my life in the last while. I’ve been kindly releasing people and experiences that no longer have a place in my life. I’ve recognized that, with my change and growth, I no longer belong in circles I once had a place in. I used to fight to hang onto connections but I’ve been releasing them with a prayer of gratitude for the time we had together and the lessons I’ve learned. And, equally importantly, recognizing that by parting with people, it leaves more room for new connections. 

I feel it most with the people who I was involved with when MFH was alive. I brought most of them from we to me but I’m now realizing that what we had in common no longer exists. And it’s OK to say goodbye silently and wish them well. One more task I’m hoping to complete this year is a cleaning out of my social media connections. One more ending. 

This same heart sister said that 2026 will be a Universal Number 1: a year of new beginnings. Self awareness, independence, bold actions for personal growth is how my AI Google search described it. And I feel perfectly aligned with that. For the first time in my widowhood journey, I feel like the only person I have anything to prove to is myself. I appreciate the opinions and feedback of others but not as much as my own. I’ve stopped fighting for people and things not meant for me. Release. Exhale. My fellow travellers in 2026 will be people like me, people seeking to better themselves and the world around them. I have no idea what this year or even tomorrow will look like. I just know that I’m looking forward, with gratitude, for all of it — the love, the grief, the joy, the sorrow. 

On that note, I’m sending each of you an armful of love. May you be beautifully blessed through the holidays and may 2026, a year of new beginnings, be a year of possibilities and adventures. A year of you.