New page

Welcome to 2026.

Welcome to today.

From one perspective, New Year’s Day was and today is a day like any other. From another, New Year’s Day was and today is a new page, a fresh start, a chance to begin once more.

For so many of us, 2025 was a year like no other. A tough, tough year of painful challenge and of seemingly relentless intensification of so much that is bad in this world. This coming year of 2026 may or may not continue down this path.

But no matter how difficult 2025 might have been for you and yours, the fact that you are here to read these words (if you are reading them relatively close to their early 2026 publication) means that you have the privileges not only of being alive today, but also of having successfully made it through 2025 intact.

Whatever 2026 might hold, remember always that the gift of being here, of living, of breathing each breath, is the most valuable thing. You have the privilege to be here at this moment. This gift provides you with everything.

As I wrote a few months ago, in This is your life now, I wrote:

“This is your life now. You are fortunate to be here, now. The chances against pretty much anything in this world existing are considerable. The web of chance, coincidence, struggle and dumb luck that has lead anything and everything, anybody and everybody to be what, where and who they are is extraordinary. The range of forces that could and can prevent anything and anyone existing is immense.”

You have the privilege to be here today. You have the privilege of a new page, a fresh start, a chance to begin once more. If that is what you want or need.

May this brand-new year in your life and in all our lives prove to be the very best yet. There is no reason why it shouldn’t be.