Happy new year! New Year’s is always my favorite holiday, because I like the sense of reflection and renewal it occasions. I enjoy looking at all the “year-in-review” posts and hearing people’s new year’s resolutions.
As for celebrations, I’m not a party person, but I did start a family tradition of having a family game night on New Year’s Eve. Last night we played Candy Land, Connect 4, Uno, and karaoke.
Gifts that 2025 brought to my life
In the spirit of New Year’s, I’ve realized that 2025 brought me many significant gifts. (Obviously, on the political/national front, it was a pretty insane year…may 2026 somehow be better!)
1. New puppy
We adopted a stray puppy and named her Papaya (like “Pup-aya”). I adore her. ❤️
(See this “Serenity Splash” post when she made her first appearance here, still a stray at that point.)
2. New old friend
I unexpectedly reconnected with my childhood best friend from ages 9 - 13. After all these years apart, we have more in common than ever. ❤️
For one thing, she’s a poet, too! (Her poems are like powerful waterfalls of raw feelings beside my tinkling “Serenity Splashes”!)
It’s been particularly amazing to reconnect with someone who both knew me and liked me when I still had a lot of childhood innocence, and who knows about the huge part of my story that came next, because she was there experiencing it too. (Let’s just call it religious trauma.)
I’ve been trying to talk her into making a Substack. I’ll let you know if she does! But she may have even bigger and better writing plans. :-)
3. New diagnosis
The most life-changing event for me in 2025 was getting diagnosed with autism as well as ADHD. (See this post I wrote about that for more detail.) Like a key that suddenly fits with a click, this diagnosis has unlocked a whole new world of validation and accommodation of my needs.
For example: headphones. I got myself these noise-cancelling headphones, and they are magic to me! Especially at home with noisy kids (and noisy husband), they make an enormous difference. I hope to write more about this sometime, because it’s been so very life-changing for me.
Sunglasses help a lot, too, to reduce my sensory overwhelm and calm down my nervous system. My family is used to me looking like this at home most of the time:
I’ll take looking weird but feeling calm over looking normal but feeling stressed (which was pretty much my whole life till now) any day!
4. New writing achievements
I won my first (adult) writing contest award, and I had my first short story published! The story (which both got published and placed in the contest) is called “One Marble,” and you can read it here in the online magazine Appalachia Bare.
I finished my first novel! (I’ve started several others in the past, including one that was up to almost 100,000 words before I decided to take a break on it.) This one is a middle-grade novel of about 40,000 words, and I really like it. I’m currently revising it, and I hope to start submitting it to agents/publishers in 2026!
I also finished a few children’s picture books and a chapter book (all of which are just sitting and waiting for me to do something with them…I enjoy the writing part much more than the revising and submitting part!).
I started recording and posting videos of my songs (as you know). I’m still finding my way with the technicalities there, but it feels good to get those songs out.
I expanded my Substack writing (as you know), dividing this blog into four sections (River Reflections, Serenity Splashes, Learning Lagoon, and Song Stream), and starting four anonymous Substacks to give myself a safe space for writing about more sensitive topics (such as religious trauma, neurodivergence, and marriage).
(If you aren’t already subscribed to the anonymous ones and would like to be, just send me a note or comment below.)
Gratitude & getting in touch
I feel extremely grateful for all of these gifts, as well as for the many other existing gifts in my life (my kids, husband, and adulthood best friend; our pets, our home, and the nature around us; and so much more)…including all of you, my readers and friends!
For those of you who are friends I’ve accidentally lost touch with, please do forgive me and reach out to me. Now I know that this is how it works with AuDHD (and maybe having kids, too). My heart can be full of love for someone and interest in connecting with them, but my brain can have immense trouble with initiating that communication.
I’m wishing you met needs and happiness in this new year. Here’s to 2026, whatever its river may bring. 🌊