2026 has had a tender start for us. Two parents with recent cancer diagnoses and a beloved pet bunny of 11 years who had to be put down this week. As I look ahead, around me, and at the state of this nation/world, there’s a temptation to give in to dread and rising anxiety. So many of the things I take security in aren’t forever.

There was a book we used to read to our girls and would quote on hikes…We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Maybe you know the song? As a family tromps through the woods tracking an imaginary bear, they encounter obstacles like a river and a mud puddle. “We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it—we gotta go through it!” The exclamation marks in the narrative hint at the sense of curiosity and adventure they maintain even as their bear hunt meets resistance.

I’ve been tracking a bear named “Control” my whole life. My Type A, risk-averse nature craves it. Control is imaginary. As I face rapid life changes ahead, turn a half-century in March, and prepare to launch my firstborn this fall, Control is eluding me more and more.

I make a practice of choosing a word for the year. Last year was “contentment”—I chose less striving and more presence. My word for 2026 is “TRUST.” Trust is only as fortifying as the thing we place our trust in. Trusting in what I can control is a losing game. I control SO little. Instead, I’m re-choosing each day to place my trust in Someone I can’t control and who calls the story He has written me “good.” Good doesn’t mean easy—the tender, most beautifully shaping events of my life weren’t so easy.

Whatever 2026 throws at me, I’m just glad to be here.

Here to feel the feelings.

Because life is achingly beautiful even when it’s hard, and I can’t go under it, I can’t go over it—I gotta go through it!!!! 😉