following my year of gritty texture
#RICOCHET2026
it was . . . a year.
so much happened in 2025, a great deal of it unexpected and unpleasant, that i never did get around to even announcing my annual word of the year. i took a ton of notes, i started to write, i got sidetracked, i started to write again, something else happened, i even began an art project around it. but nothing was ever completed.
my word was TEXTURE. a rich and multi-layered word with many connotations. i didn’t really have anything specific in mind when i chose it. i just liked the idea of the word, and i was eager to see how it all played out. and boy oh boy, did 2025 supply me with a lot of texture!
in a nutshell (maybe someday i’ll write about some or all of the topics in more detail), the year consisted of travel to two countries, a bittersweet-and-beautiful grand finale of THE ARRIVAL (my seventh women’s retreat in italy), grief, betrayal, the loss of my website (hello substack), and a few difficult moving-forward decisions.
so then. 2026. a new year. a new word.
i decided on RICOCHET. it seemed appropriate for a much needed reset.
or so i thought.
it actually started out wonderfully, with a january trip to rockaway beach in oregon with my husband. a winter sojourn at the ocean seemed like the perfect place to get body and mind attuned and aligned, to ricochet back. i imagined the powerful pounding surf, hair tossing wildly in the brisk bracing wind. sunset and moonrise promises in an almost-deserted wintry landscape. something about the tides and the skies keeping rhythm with the myriad of moods, finally allowing a letting-go process to take place.
and it proved to be all that.
three days after returning to our home at the pink house, however, i had a rather dramatic fall down ten steps, bruising my body all over and breaking my right wrist.
and the word i had chosen to guide me through this new year suddenly took on a whole different meaning than i’d ever intended (you know, something like ricocheting off stairs all the way to the landing).
but now, almost three months later - after surgery, physical therapy, several medical ups & downs, writing 181 journal pages with my non-dominant hand, and rest rest rest - it kind of makes sense.
this definition of ricochet seems quite apt . . . “experiencing life’s challenges that rebound unexpectedly, drastically shifting your path, bouncing back and adapting with resilience, finding strength in new directions following a setback, turning difficult moments into growth” . . . well, yeah.
so that’s where i’m at. starting my own personal new year (i think rather fittingly) on my birthday, april 20, instead. looking forward to a couple of upcoming adventures in may and in june. and always always always remaining appreciative of opportunities that make me stronger, braver, more alive.
