We’re a couple days into 2026 now, and although I’ve done my level best to clean up my feed, there’s still so much negative posting about 2025… celebrity deaths being the main culprit, I suppose, as there’s been a bunch of those in the past little while.
I’ve got some real sour news for everyone. If you’re hanging your entire year on the prospect that no celebrities, filmmakers, or musicians you ever liked will die then you are setting yourself up for massive disappointment. Death is really the only thing we’re guaranteed in this life, as it’s the only thing that fate really owes any of us.
Of course, many of these are close to home, and it’s perfectly natural to be upset about the loss of people who shaped your childhood. I’m still upset about Harold Ramis, and nobody can take that away from me, BUT the people who enriched your life as you were growing up are much older than you, and they; too, are given a finite number of days to spend on this planet.
We’re lucky to be alive at the same time as any of them.
This year is going to have it’s ups and downs.
Some really great things are going to happen.
Some absolute shit things are going to happen, too.
How do you want to handle them?
I recommend grace and optimism.
I used to refer to myself as a realist, until one day I came to the conclusion that this “realistic” view of the world I was holding onto was inherently negative. I guess bad things happen… but good things happen just as often, sometimes more often.
I can’t honestly say that my life is worse now than it was a year ago… maybe you CAN say that, but we all have the power to improve things in our lives. It starts with wanting it, but you’re going to have to do some work to get there.
I wish you all the best this year.
The Conscious Pilgrim 