A Year That Asks for Gentleness

2026 arrived wrapped in deep cold.

Snow on the ground and a sudden, unmistakable winter.

The kind you do not just see outside the window,

but feel in your bones,

in your breath,

in the way the body instinctively slows down.

Around me, everything is moving fast.

Plans, goals, resolutions.

Articles telling us who to become this year,

what to build, what to conquer,

how to arrive somewhere new.

But inside me, something else is echoing.

This moment feels like the end of something and the beginning of something else.

Not only a change of seasons in the world,

but a shift in my inner seasons as well.

This year, what I am asking for is not ambition.

Not grand declarations.

Not a list of things to achieve.

What I am asking for is inner gentleness.

To move through the year with more acceptance.

To learn how to truly see myself without rushing past, without judgment.

To pause before saying yes.

To practice saying no.

To recognize what feels right for me, and what no longer does.

I want to choose not because I should,

not because it looks good,

not because it is expected,

but because it is aligned.

To stop when rest is needed.

To listen when the body asks to slow down.

To honor limits not as failures,

but as wisdom.

This deep winter and this intense cold seem to be asking all of us to slow down.

And I want to answer that call.

Not only because I am tired,

not only because the timing makes sense,

but because I have grown.

And when you grow,

you need different conditions.

More spacious ones.

More supportive ones.

More honest ones.

Growth does not always ask for speed.

Sometimes it asks for shelter.

For patience.

For presence.

So for this new year,

I am wishing for a life that is softer,

slower,

more awake.

A year that is held.

A year that is illuminated from within.

A year that is lived, not rushed through.