Skip to main content

2026

I usually do a simple "wishing you" holiday post, and I will still offer up a wish. That said, changes are coming directly ahead in 2026 that will cause people a lot of suffering and grief, particularly those with serious health conditions who can't afford to pay for health insurance anymore. I can still maintain coverage myself without dipping into my retirement account, but only because my guy will be helping me pay the ridiculous premiums I must fork over until I turn 65 later this year (and since I've financially supported him for the last 25 years, this is only right.)

My advice on the outrageous health insurance situation is to seek support and low-cost or free medical treatment via programs in your state (NAFCC is a good place to start), as well as ask family for help with paying for health insurance if possible.

Because of the health insurance situation and the rising cost of basically everything I am planning a no-spend year in 2026. I've done single months in the past when I stop spending except for the absolute necessities like food and meds, but I actually need to do a full twelve months this time around. That is why I've been stocking up on yarn, fabric and other supplies, so I'll have enough to see me through to 2027. To be accountable to myself I'm going to keep a monthly ledger and blog about what I spent at the end of each month.

As in years past I have no New Year's resolutions. I intend to be grateful to be alive, which is becoming more and more a privilege at my age, and put my efforts into working, creating and (hopefully) inspiring others to do the same.

I know it will be easy during the year ahead to become depressed, mired down in despair and utterly disillusioned about, well, everything. Really, I'm right there with you. But given a choice between diving into the abyss or reaching for the light no matter how difficult it might be, I think I'd rather stick to the latter. Let's be valiant, turn our back on the darkness and hatred, and try to hang in and support each other. Let's opt for providing kindness and understanding to others in what is going to be a very tough time, always -- and maybe we'll all get through 2026 intact.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Image credit: Image by Animal Planet from Pixabay

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...
2 comments
Read more

Wild Ride

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...
Post a Comment
Read more

Progress

My guy is back home safe, sound and exhausted. I think he just realized he's over seventy now. :) I didn't finish a sewing project while he was gone, but I did make some progress on the beach bag. I've tacked down all the fabric elements on top of the old backing fabric I quilted. Time to break out the embroidery thread box and have some fun.
2 comments
Read more