New Year’s Day and A New Perspective

Welcome to the Year of the Horse.

Last year, the year of the snake, was, to use a highly overused word in the wake of the fires, unprecedented.

The most difficult year I have endured, to be sure.

Usually at this time of year, I’m writing a blog about how to finally get those New Year’s Resolutions to stick or top tips to get get rid of that extra fat, once and for all.

This year, those topics could not be further from my mind.

Even the New Year Goals I typically set for myself seem banal and futile; business objectives or travel plans or deciding if this is the year I return to racing Ironman.

Bigger picture things take precedence.

What will become of our beloved Palisades? Will this be the year we finally find out ALL the truth of what happened not only on that fateful day, but in the months and years of negligence and corruption leading up to it?

Where will we settle? Do we stay in Malibu which I’ve fallen in love with and then uproot Yves when he’s 12 and enroll in in school closer to ‘home’ with classmates he once knew, maybe, years ago?

Granted, there have been blessings.

First and foremost, no thing we lost is as important as our lives or our spirit and faith both of which are crucial for anyone intending to rebuild from a total loss, both figuratively and and literally.

We have been welcomed into a new community, consisting of too many other families who lost it all in previous fires who’ve become sources of light for me, leading the way of what to expect and how long it might take to feel whole again.

I’ve learned that so many things I thought were so important, are not.

I no longer care that I don’t get a mani / pedi each week and I may find the time to blow my hair smooth once each week.

It doesn’t bother me if I head straight from the beach to Vintage to grab some milk for Yves with sand all over my toes or if stop into Sea and Soul wearing only a swim suit because… who cares?

Those things do not matter.

Sure, I’ll go to the local nail salon from time to time and now it feels like a treat.

What feels far more significant is that I can walk or run at the beach across the street every single day.

Yves loves his new school and has become an avid, regular surfer.

Friends have shown up, every day without fail, from far and wide to ask if I am ok and how can they help.

And neighbors, our collective community banded together strong and regardless of who ends up being able to physically rebuild or being left without a choice and having to say goodbye to our beautiful Palisades forever, we will always be one, undefeated in spirit and unwilling to put this behind us until all the truth is revealed and justice served.

So for 2026, my personal intention is to continue to be deeply grateful for every thing, no matter how small it may seem, each and every day and each and every moment.

I felt that way at home, in fact, and that is one thing that brings me such peace. I let the universe know aloud, how much every single second I got to live in our home in the Palisades meant to me and how truly grateful I was.

I have learned that 2025 was the year of the snake, a time for shedding what one does not need… and boy have we learned that it applied even to things we did not know we did not need, and without our own free will.

I do believe there is meaning in all of this and perhaps one day we will find out; or maybe, each of us discovers it from within.

2026 is the year of the chariot. Set an intention and run with it.

What will you intend?