To me, New Year’s Eve has always been an extraordinary night.  Not because of the parties, the revelry, the commercialism, nor the deviation from the “normal” lifestyle with excessive festivities.

New Year’s Eve has, for most of my life, meant a time of quiet reflection on years past and of pondering the promise of what the future may hold.  It has the feel of standing on the edge of a lofty cliff and gazing out over my whole life and how that life has brought me to where I am at this very moment in time.  And whether this very moment is positive, negative, happy, sad, content, or chaotic, I am standing here as a person I have never been before.

Tonight my future holds the potential for all or nothing and everything in between.  My life is again a blank artist’s canvas that is, until I begin painting, a work of art in its own right.  It is pristine, original, fresh, and inspirational if one is willing to allow it to be so.  The simplicity of the unfilled space has such implicit value to the individual who freely undertakes the endeavor of rendering his or her own image without taking the path of least resistance.   

I choose to linger for a time with my hands void of any paintbrush before I will select an artist’s tool to begin illustrating the person I will become.

As we begin the new year on January 1, we’re excited to be writing the third book in our children’s series while also returning to the young adult novel we first began when my children were young. It feels especially meaningful to revisit those early ideas at the start of a new year, and we can’t wait to see what the next pages and chapters will bring!

Wishing you the best in 2026!

Family Ink: The Mother and Son Storytelling Team