Goodbye 2025, Hello Dreams & Possibilities

Back in DC - Redline Train to Metro Center.

Let's face it, friends: 2025 was a rough year. I won't regurgitate the details—oh yes I will—just a tiny laundry list of atrocities -- which you're welcome to skip!

Smooth transition to power of a fascist in the making, DOGE-ing of critical social and environmental programs, ICE seizing innocents off our streets, takeover and tanking of an arts institution named for a president who gave a damn, prioritization of money and power over everything.

Sorry to be a downer, but we can't be Pollyannaish about it. Denial will come back to bite us—while righteous rage leads to revolution!

Let's face the reality of the difficulty and rise ABOVE as we close the door on 2025 and open to what's possible.

You'll have your own personal list. For me, 2025 represented the momentous and bittersweet end of a four-year Ramblin' Anne nomad journey and the auspicious re-habitation of my lovely home in Mount Pleasant, DC.

Wow, the resistance to settling down has been palpable—especially with helicopters swirling overhead several times daily, rattling the windows in their frames and reminding me: I'm back in the belly of the beast.

Inhale, exhale – baby belly breaths calm the nerves and bring me back home inside my body. I’ve learned this pranayama practice on my healing journey. We need this soothing practice more than ever, now.

Then there's the other side of the equation: this year’s brought so much goodness to balance out the dread. It's important to appreciate the positives—especially as our survival brains are wired for negativity, especially when there's so much of it!

Let's start with the little beautiful things—my appreciative inquiry list for 2025. Thanks for l

letting me share it with you:

• Witnessed the full harvest supermoon in Aries rise over the ocean against a backdrop of pastel sky—visceral reminder of our INsignificance in the grand scheme of things.

• Started teaching yoga at the YMCA in Chincoteague—Yoga for Healthy Spines and Balanced Minds—and love it! Finally, at 60, I found my niche: helping others find peace, power, and presence in their bodies.

• Won the 2025-26 DC Arts and Humanities Fellowship for Literature—third year in a row. This acknowledgement of me as an artist (?!) – as I struggle to string sentences together, to complete my decades-long memoir project, to submit work and receive back gut-punch rejections – is a gift. Thank you, DC Arts!

• On that note, got two pieces accepted by major magazines, to be published in early 2026. More to come about this—and a reminder to myself: there can be no real yeses unless there are a few (or many) nos along the way.

• And Caroline My Blessed Crooked Spine? She's thriving! Four years after I eschewed the surgeon's scalpel and hit the road to discover my own healing powers—she's pain-free most days. This alone makes 2025 a banner year.

  
  

Ahhh, that feels better—acknowledging all this goodness. There was some!

The next question is: how do I carry that goodness forward into 2026 and make it the best year ever?

How good can it get? I’m asking YOU, dear friends.

Funny enough, at my writing critique salon last night, the opening freewrite prompt asked us just this. Fill in the blank—set a timer—don't pick up your pen for three minutes:

For 2026, I dream of...

Read your response aloud. Share it with me. Share it with your family and friends. Ask them the question, too.

How good can it get?

Want to delve deeper into these questions? Watch for my upcoming Visioning 2026 Mindbody Workshop -- through mindful movement, breathwork and creative visioning practices,we'll explore dreams and possibilities together.

• Workshop 1 on Chincoteague Island Friday, January 9th

• Workshop 2 in MtP, Washington, DC, late January - date TBA