Farewell, 2025 - A few thoughts to acknowledge and welcome 2026

The snowflakes fall, moving up and down with the gentle yet sharp breeze carrying them. I haven't seen snow for more than a year. And when I do see it - it vanishes quickly. I reckon snow reminds me of how transformations happen, how mutable nature is, how everything is in constant motion. It's silly to think about it actually - I'm not sure how it happened that calling someone a snowflake became an insult, although I reckon it likely has some semiotic significance, perhaps with easily melting or dissolving its form when coming into unfavorable circumstances. Yet, regardless of the dominant cultural discourse, I find myself currently thinking of each and every one of us as a snowflake. Our momentary shape and form has a lifespan, an expiry date. Our current form survives in the conditions which favour it. Once we touch something else - a reaction occurs. Some reactions throw us into strengthening our shape, becoming more rigid perhaps, like how snowflakes may turn into ice. Perhaps, we are touched by a temperature that melts us - forces us to relinquish our current form and become more fluid. Perhaps, as we are, we find an environment that supports us in the shape we are in - we receive systemic support, though, we would probably be nothing without all the other snowflakes around us, helping us form a pile of snow. Though, of course, unlike snowflakes - we have agency to make choices, at least in a lot if not most scenarios.

A new year dawned recently. A symbolic representation of a new start - of a new cycle. I think about how much this means to many people around the world. I start thinking about how many people set NY's resolutions, how many people are focusing on the right things for them - and how many are focusing on the wrong things. Not right and wrong in the sense of a universal, moral dimension - right and wrong in the sense of internal and external alignment. I am opening up an entire new tab in my thoughts, regarding the concept of right and wrong, even in this alignment based sense. In the context in which I use it now, I find many of us try to cope with situations rather than resolve the root of them, and sometimes, instead of aiming for a radical (meaning root - coming from the root) change, there happens a well-meaning, yet naive attempt to put a flaster on a broken bone.

Perhaps we do not have full authority over what touches us as we pass through life - one authority we do have is to choose how we want to be transmuted at the touch. Perhaps my analysis is wrong, and perhaps I'm missing many pieces of the puzzle, swimming through all the thoughts coming up now. I do not have the full truth. All in all, what we call "truth" can be condensed to a belief providing a reflection of what is happening within or outside of us. It can be more or less accurate, and it is quite an unfortunate development when we hold on so tightly to a truth which shows to be a deeply distorted reflection. I certainly like to be in touch with the truth. It has not always been pleasant, and it has always been worthwhile. Personally, acknowledging truths, even those that generally made my life harder to start with, eventually brought me more and more ease, more and more peace, more and more meaning and a relatively joyful existence in comparison to what was. I think our body and mind show signs of recognizing these distorted truths, especially when we believe them, cling to them, or otherwise cope with them and live our reality based on them. Pretending one is hard ice while being mushed in a puddle of dirt ought not give favorable outcomes in our individual and shared realities.

How exactly do we allow ourselves to see the truth, when we can so convincingly lie to ourselves? One ought look internally to look at the answer. If not internally - something will show up, in the body, or something in our environment/relationships we couldn't foresee while living a lie. Something out of place. Something that "shouldn't happen". In a practical sense - someone keeps convincing themselves they have no unpleasant feelings/emotions, yet they cannot fall asleep every night and get panic attacks. Always presume that there is a reason for reactions, even if you don't have the knowledge, insight to explain them just yet - even if you don't have the courage to open up to them as of right now.

I welcome 2026 with a longing to see, feel and acknowledge more of the truth - my truth, the truth of others, social truths, the truths of nature, the truths cycles bring. Whatever I am touched by, I want to know what's happening, how am I truly transforming, and what can I learn about myself? Personally, I don't have a rigid direction in terms of the gradual transmutation, apart from my curiosity to know more about the world. To enhance my sensitivity. To have the courage to face whatever lies ahead.