“[Humanity] is suspended in the present, between the past and the future, as if on a rock between two chasms. Behind and ahead, all is darkness.” — Chateaubriand

A year ago, on the eve of 2025, America and the world faced the prospect of evil times ahead. In my New Year’s Eve post of 2024, I tried to look beyond the imminent calamities to the luminous horizon of divine intention.

“The evils of the coming days will be phenomenal and accidental. Though they will hurt, they will never be quite solid or real or enduring in the way that the Love, Justice and Mercy of God are, now and forever. We shall not remain silent about the damage, or complacent about the consequences of those evils. But we must not give them the power and glory which are God’s alone.”

We all know how hard it has been to remain grounded and trusting in the carnival of cruelty and madness that was 2025. The way forward appears equally perilous. It is hard not to feel ourselves in Delacroix’s frail boat with Dante and Virgil, tossed by the turbulence of hell, struggling with outer demons and inner fears.

But on the eve of a New Year, I choose to dwell in a different image: Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. The hiker has risen above the fray of history to stand on a lofty summit, surveying the world before him. We can’t see his facial expression or know his inner thoughts, but his body language conveys a state of contemplative stillness. He is not contorted by fear of what is, or what may come.

What is out there in the mist, hidden from his eyes and ours? If it’s the future, will it be better, or worse? Or more of the same? Whatever it may be, will we—can we—meet it with hope, courage, and love?

One of Friedrich’s contemporaries, the Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorf, said that we can, and that doing so will make a difference in the outcome.

“There is a sleeping song in all endlessly dreaming things,
and the world will begin to sing if you find the master word.”

Dear reader, in the New Year 2026 may you find that word, and make it your own.

I am so grateful for all of you who have stopped here to read and reflect in 2025, and for all the comments and sharing you do to keep the thoughts circulating. May the days to come bring you many graces and blessings. Happy New Year!