I've already done year end retrospective, Looking Back on 2025, so this is a look towards the coming year. 2026 will be a full year of retirement for Rachel. It has been good for her. She's much less stressed, exercising regularly, taking better care of herself, more engaged with family and friends, and doesn't seem too annoyed with having to be around me more.
In looking ahead, I believe my focus will be:
1. Continuing to move. Hopefully by more running than in 2025. Movement is important for my physical, mental and spiritual health. This blog started as a way for me to express my experiences from running. Running has been a time for reflection, pondering, creating, introspection. As injuries and the mysterious aches of aging have reduced number of days per week I run and reduced the number of miles during those runs, I've discovered that walking can give me a similar experience. I miss the endorphin rush that running brings, but I have found that it's movement that is important for my overall well being.
2. Find a hobby or activity that allows me to spend free time in a productive manner. I don't have much of a creative/artistic side. I have picked up and put down a guitar, never learning more an a couple of chords then forgetting them. I dabble with writing as you are witnessing now, but the inspiration hits infrequently, usually during a run or walk or a late night glass of bourbon. There's something out there, I just need to discover it.
3. Expand my purpose, (see the above Looking Back on 2025 link) to those in my community who are being threatened. I feel the need in the coming year to do more to oppose the blatant racism of detaining a person based on them standing at a bus stop, where or what they do for work, the language they speak, or their race.[1] It is becoming more common for immigrants who have no criminal record to be arrested and held without due process.[2] Even U.S. citizens are being detained.[3] The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution gives due process to all people in the country, "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,..."[4]
The 3 things from 2025 were for the most part successful. Running could have gone better, but that will be an annual ongoing pursuit that requires adjustments as my body dictates. This year's 3 things are about preparing for the future in a way I haven't much considered in years past. Either because I haven't been this close to retirement or I hadn't witnessed the threat that is posed by an authoritarian and racist administration on the freedom and rights of friends who are not white, who speak Spanish, ride the bus, shop or work at ethnic businesses. Times change, unfortunately sometimes they change back to a time when similar threats were happening.[5]
[5] A Fever in the Heartland, Timothy Egan
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