“It went by fast, didn’t it? Twelve months. Just 12 months ago, you were right here, thinking about how 2025 would go, thinking about changes you were trying to make, things you were going to start, things you were going to stop.
Well?
It’s like that verse in the beautiful John Lennon and Yoko Ono Christmas song:
So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun
The first part of that haunts us a little. There was more we could have done. There were things we fell short with. There was life left unlived. It’s a little bittersweet and sad, isn’t it? A little disappointing, even shameful. But it’s that final line that has the hope in it—and the imperative.
We’ve been blessed with another go, or at least the start of another go. Will we take it? Or will we go on the same as we did before and before and before?
Marcus Aurelius had a powerful thought exercise that is worth trying here at the close of the year. Think of yourself as dead, he says. Imagine that your life has come to its end. Think about what you left undid. Think about the perspective this puts on things. Think about what you’ll regret, what you’ll wish you could do differently, what you’d say, what you wish you’d started and stopped. Now, he says, you’ve been given a second chance, so take what’s left and live it properly.
This is Christmas. What have you done? 2025 is over. But now 2026 is just beginning.
Live it properly.”
Listen to Happy Xmas (War Is Over): https://youtu.be/flA5ndOyZbI?si=tDDNN3sfpdl_6FzL
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