“Im not telling you to make the world better. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.” – Joan Didion
I keep returning to this quote as we step into a new year. Not the pressure to fix everything, or the demand for resolutions or reinvention. Just the invitation to be awake to our lives, to look closely, to take chances, to participate.
2026 happens to be the Year of the Fire Horse, a rare combination that comes around only once every sixty years. Traditionally, it’s associated with courage, momentum, and change. Fire brings intensity and clarity. The horse brings movement. Together, they ask us not to stand still, but to
move forward with purpose, even if the path isn’t perfectly mapped.
That energy feels right for January. This moment doesn’t call for perfection, but for presence. For choosing action over apathy, curiosity over caution. For making your own work, taking pride in it, and staying engaged with the world as it is messy, beautiful, demanding, alive.
This year, maybe the goal isn’t to make sweeping declarations or bold promises. Maybe it’s simply this: to live fully in the place you are. In your neighborhood. In your relationships. In the stories unfolding around you.
Here’s to a year of courage, passion, and motion.
Your neighbors,
Shaleen and Sam DeStefano