2026: Year of Healing

2025 was the Year of Change for Jarda and me. 

(Photo in Lake Mary, on our 30th wedding anniversary, Dec. 12, 2025)

Somehow, I knew in January 2025 that our orderly life was going to be upended this year, and my intuition was right. 

It's been twelve years since 2013, when we left our stimulating life in Prague, which was full of fun with friends and relatives; cafes, art exhibits and museums; trips around the Czech Republic, Norway, Germany, and Austria; career seminars where we helped dozens of people refine their career goals and move forward in life; two interesting churches; two jobs for me working with young kids; a great knitting group where I found new friends, and more.

In these twelve years since we've been back in Central Florida, I've established a new career as a college Writing professor. Jarda and I have written five new books, run career seminars, and made a whole new set of friends. We've been happy with the quieter life we live, though we've missed Prague and manage a substantial visit there every summer to keep in touch. 

But I could feel in my bones that things would be different in 2025, and they were. 

1. My teaching load tripled in the Fall semester. I love the class I teach, and it was great fun to have more students, but the extra time to coordinate, plan, run classes, grade work, and find ways to reach troubled students was a major change. I'm glad I did it.

2. A very dear friend died unexpectedly. My friend was my mentor as a professor, as well as someone who shared my weird sense of humor and was willing to give me insights that were different from my own. I miss this friend whenever I walk into my classroom.

3. Our Prague commitments changed, too. We knew this would happen, so it was not a shock when people we'd done business with for decades retired or changed their lives, but it meant that we need to rethink how we relate to our Prague life. 

4. We strengthened friendships and became closer to family members. Thank God for the Internet! Keeping in touch and spending virtual time with treasured people is so much easier when we can email,  Facebook, and telephone them with ease.

5. Jarda and I are mellowing with the years! We are kinder to each other and ourselves, and we no longer get so quickly irritated when life doesn't meet our personal expectations. For this change, we are thankful.

No doubt, 2026 will also be full of change. My focus on healing will show me, I hope, how to help other people heal their physical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional sore spots. I'm also looking for personal healing in the same ways.

So I send you, dear reader, greetings for 2026 and my very best wishes that you find healing in your life. 

Sara and Jarda as little-uns