2026 – A New Year, A New Season

So here we are, 31^st December 2025. I’ve looked forward to the closing of this year, wanted it to end, but now that it is here, I’m strangely reluctant to let go of it.

It has been a full year, one that started with great promise and panic as I launched my book, Sipho’s War, both here in White River and in the land of my birth, the setting for the tale, Eswatini. Hard to describe the emotions of those launches, and the subsequent sales, and the feedback.

From there I picked up on a book I’ve been trying to write for decades. I realised I wasn’t getting anywhere and decided it was time to invest in a book coach. I had been reading newsletters from a group, All About Writing, had taken part in a couple of their webinars, which I enjoyed and from which I learnt much about the craft of writing, developing story and all that goes into writing a book. I liked that they are South African whereas most of the people I had interacted with up to this point were American and lacked the understanding and feel for what I was trying to say.

I signed up for their mentorship course in May. It’s been an interesting journey, and I am excited about all I have learnt and the progress I’m making. Not sure that Richard Beynon and Jo Anne Richards always agree with me – I’m convinced I can hear Richard sighing all the way from England where he currently resides. Josy is far more tolerant.

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time in people’s homes taking care of their pets while they travelled the country. While I enjoyed my stays, it was tiring as for months I didn’t spend more than a few nights at home. I love the pet friends I have made, who to a degree make up for those I no longer have, and the privilege of being in homes redolent of my own in Eswatini many years back.

But, with all the packing and moving and disruption, I let go of the discipline of writing a weekly blog, I also stopped entering writing competitions, all of which kept me at my keyboard, and forced me to exercise my creativity and keep writing, which is the only way to improve. It doesn’t pay to let up because each time you do it is harder to pick up and get going again.

It’s also an identity problem – am I a writer? If yes, then I should be writing. Am I a bible teacher? Then I should teach. Am I a guardian of homes and pets? If yes, then that is what I should do. It is hard to be and do all three. I have done this my whole life – believed I could juggle multiple roles – hopefully as I turn onto the last stretch of my life I will get it right – that is to say ‘no’ when something impinges on my priority mission, which is to write.

Sounds simple, but old habits die hard. I think the biggest lesson of 2025 is not only how important boundaries are, but how imperative it is to set them. I have fluffed around with these muddled habits most of my life, and wonder why I end up burnt out, guilt ridden, and prickly.

The turning point came when a friend said to me: ‘No’ is a sentence. I chewed on that for a long while, but eventually it took hold and I found myself trying it out. No. Just that. No awkward explanations, no tension in my voice. Just, No. And it worked! Even to myself – No, Glenda – and I find myself backing off my pedestal and getting back to doing what I’m supposed to be engaged in. Not every time, but I’m getting better at it.

2026 beckons, with all the promise and potential of another new year. This time instead of resolutions, I have my year planner before me, my goals and priorities listed. I have, courtesy of Ian Simkins (iansimkins.com// @bridgechurchtn) a list of searching questions in four categories: Looking up, Looking in, Looking back, Looking forward. It is well worth a look if you are unsure of what you want out of the coming year.

Resolutions are too flimsy, which is why they’re so easy to break. And each time I fail to do what I set out to do, I shrink into a cloak of failure that is entirely of my own making. So, this year I’m making plans, aligned to my goals and ensuring they are attainable. As Richard Beynon said: Start by writing one sentence. That will turn into a paragraph, and then a page, a chapter, until you have a complete manuscript.

2025 was a tough year, much of which I am happy to leave  on the trash heap where it belongs.

Many good things, too, sadly overshadowed by blood-soaked news bulletins as the world degenerated into a cruel morass of hatred at the hands of corrupt politicians. Thank God I live in South Africa, where despite its problems, by comparison with what is happening in the so-called first world, a degree of sanity reigns.

Paul in writing to the Hebrews says in Chapter 12, starting with the first verse, exhorts thus:

let us therefore lay aside every weight and sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God.

To all my friends who have journeyed through the year by my side, thank you. I have loved our times of laughter, of Kruger visits, of coffee dates, bible studies and book clubs, and look forward to more of the same in 2026. My family, who keep me grounded, drive me nuts sometimes as I do them, love you guys, you are the best!

My prayer for all is for a year of joy, of peace, of fulfilment as you do that which edifies and satisfies your souls.

2026 here we come! Yay!