The Stillness Between Years: Choosing What Comes with You

By Paula C Lamb Welcome to 2026. A new year is upon us, and I am wondering if you are excited to close a chapter in 2025 or whether you are continuing a specific journey into 2026. As someone who seems to travel a lot, I can’t help but look back at the past year as a traveler might look at what to pack for a new journey and think: not everything fits, not everything belongs, it’s time for a change, and it’s time to be filled with gratitude but also to let go. The new year, I’ve learned, isn’t about adding more, it’s about choosing what to continue carrying with me as I embark on the road ahead.

In the first hours of a new year, I feel there is a stillness, a pause between what was and what is to come. It is as if our life and the world around us takes a breath, an exhale before the next inhale. Endings blur into new beginnings; we are departing and arriving at once. And the new year provides us with the perfect opportunity to look back and fill our hearts with one word: gratitude. Gratitude for what was, how far we have come, and what lies ahead.

A new year gives us a shake-up, a wake-up. It highlights that time is ticking and waits for no one, especially as we get older. There is no time to waste crying over spilled milk or the what ifs of life. Yet it is also about honoring stillness and noticing what lingers as we embark on new adventures, holding a laser-focused vision of what we hope to achieve in the coming year and how we want to be and what we want to do.

So, as you embark on this new year, I invite you to take time to be still, to notice what has lingered, to take a breath, and as you exhale, to open your palms and release what no longer serves you. And as you inhale, inhale gratitude for what was and for what is about to come.

Hi, my name is Paula Lamb, and I am a regular contributor to She Rises Studios Anthologies, and the Hanna Magazine publication. I invite you to join me as I embark on this new year’s journey of seeking, learning, growing, and understanding what it truly means to be “Fit for Life,” and listening for what the year 2026 might want from me. In the meantime, take time be still, notice what has lingered and begin to let go of what no longer serves you. See you in the next issue. Connect With Paula www.linktr.ee/podcasterpaula

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