Bring it on, 2026!

This year I was in my ninth 9-year cycle. It all started when I traveled to my father’s homeland, Switzerland, at age nine. The second cycle saw my graduation from high school at age 18. At 27 my son was born; at 36 my youngest daughter joined the family. At 45 my first book was published, winning an Angel Award two years later. Intriguing, as I look back on my life.

Sitting in my front room, gazing on my sunlit dining room, I am filled with thankfulness and joy. As I begin to write this blog, a text message comes through: my very first great-grandchild was born this morning! What a delightful way to close out this year and welcome in the next. My oldest daughter (who passed seven years ago) would have been ecstatic—it would have been her first biological grandchild. My heart pulls the memory of her presence forward into this most wonderful occasion. She now lives on in a grandson whose future promises to be filled with love.

None of us can avoid the certainty of change, acknowledging that some new circumstances bring immediate gladness (my new great-grandson!) while others are lamented. When I received the 60-day notice to vacate my duplex, I hated the abruptness and forced adjustments portended. Now, sleeping in my youngest grandson’s former bedroom, I look up at the ceiling resplendent with luminescent stars (with a few glowing dinosaurs sprinkled in) and am delighted. Not only has my living situation changed, so has my mindset.

To quote a passage from Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1971 novel, The Lathe of Heaven:

But change need not unbalance you; life’s not a static object, after all. It’s a process. . . The more things go on moving, interrelating, conflicting, changing, the less balance there is—and the more life.

Yes, more life! Yesterday I walked in the sunshine after a week of pelting rain. Today I became a great-grandmother. Bring it on, 2026!