Welcome to the New Year, May it Be Better Than The Last

Hello Friends,I was chatting with Natasha K. on New Year’s Eve. She said this year flew, and it felt like a century. I think it’s worth subscribing to her just on the basis of that comment 🤣!A guy I used to work with used to say that when you’re young, the days are short and the years are long. As you get older, it reverses. The days become long and the years become short. I think that observation offers some insight as to whether you’re living a fulfilling life. The guy who said it was a day laborer.The above drawing is more artwork from my eldest daughter. She made a painting for mom for Christmas. I always tell them that I value their creations 1000X more than anything they could buy for me. I have a few more things to share that she made for me. That will be one of my main objectives in 2026. I’ve created a whole new newsletter to share such things, be sure to subscribe:Around December 15th, Robert Danna listened to one of my podcasts and noticed that I sounded tired. He urged me to take a break, and I really appreciate his concern. I have to say that I was resisting taking a break. When I don’t sit and write the anxiety starts to build. So, it took me a long time to slide into the holiday season. My wife had to work on the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas, so it didn’t really feel like the holiday until she was home. But this last week has been good. We didn’t go anywhere to take advantage of the days off. Honestly, there are times when going on a trip leaves you more exhausted than staying at home. My “writing room” is right next to the living room. There are times when I shuffle over to get some work done even during the holiday.Yesterday, I made the deliberate choice to go skiing. Here’s the view from the cracked windshield of my car:It’s probably illegal to drive around with a cracked windshield, but the car has 224,000 miles on it. If I got the windshield replaced, the windshield would be worth more than the value of the car.Anyway, I got to the ski trail, put in an audiobook, and skied for an hour and a half. It felt good. The muscles were tired. I came home and watched a film with the family.It’s almost as if it took the full week of time between Christmas and New Years to really decompress. These last few days are the “money” days. I’m still coasting along, a little bit reluctant to get back into the flow of things—though I have been keeping up to date on the novel I’m writing for my kids. I’m excited to share this last one, it’s really good.I want to try and make a deliberate effort to share some more positive things this year. As I look back on 2025, I realize that I didn’t completely unpack all the ground I covered. Will Fullwood and I made leaps and bounds in deconstructing the mechanisms of white supremacy. I think I’ll have to listen to all those conversations again. There are certainly insights that I didn’t expand as I should have. The secret to writing is to capture your moments of inspiration. To do that, you have to continue to revisit your past experiences.I want to also express how much you all mean to me. All of you who have elected to spend a little bit of time with me each day have really helped push me to learn more and try to find the right words to help create a better world. I have so many notes that I have to sort through, I have so many article ideas I haven’t had time to finish. 2025 felt like a mad scramble. Hopefully in 2026 I’ll have the opportunity to be a bit more deliberate.And I really want to share the stories I’ve written for my kids with you. Those stories are special to me. I need to find a local printer so I can send copies to founding subscribers or something like that (that’s yet another seed of an idea).Soon I’ll be back in the flow of doing daily lives. I’m getting guests scheduled. But for now, I’m just kind of floating along until my kids finally finish their break. These are the precious days, when the dog is strong and the kids live at home and everybody is together and happy. We have to appreciate those little moments! I’m also looking forward to having more regular talks with all of you!Good luck to you all in 2026! I hope you are all prosperous and happy and at peace!You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI’m so happy you’re here, and I’m looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe