Every time we close a new year, it almost feels like finishing a book. Some books are so good you want to read them again, some time in the near future, or immediately. And some, you can’t bury them deep enough to never find them again, nor remember them ever.
But either way, even if you’d revisit them, you’d do it knowing more, reading them with new eyes. Ending a year also feels like a new book is waiting for you on the shelf. A brand-new, 365 page book, just waiting to be cracked open and savored. Some pages will delight, and some will frighten. Just the same, you never know what you’re gonna get.
I have been sitting on this blog for a month now, writing it in my head only, and I didn’t know (I still don’t know) what’ll be about ...
In some respects, I feel like I have not accomplished that much this year, and in some others, I feel like it was the most transformational year of all of my half-a-century life. If there was a theme for the year, I’d say, the themes were turmoil, strife, and rebirth, albeit a premie and fragile one.
The way the year started, at least out there in the outside world, I was not sure we would make it to the end of it in one piece ... Struggle, war, total disregard for humanity kicked off the year and it persisted throughout.
After a couple of months of frantically following the news only to read bleak story after bleak story and hopeless story after hopeless story, I decided to stop torturing myself. Dusting up my Communist childhood survival skills of self-preservation, I donned them with renewed strength and almost immediately got comfortable in them. It is unfortunate, but it is the only way I would have survived this year, when heroes were put down, and spit in the face, hunted, and killed, while oppressors are riding the high waves of fame, fortune, and rampant lawlessness.
I realized that the loyalty we have to serve is not to the world, not to who’s in office, any office for that matter, not to the media, but to us. To our own lives. The key thing for our happiness is to take care of us, and our own. Start at home, like The Alchemist taught us. The world will be noisy - it always is. And history always repeats, despite our most ignorant efforts. But our lives are but once. So why waste them on what we can’t control? I know - all cliches and all platitudes, but I had to keep telling them to myself, to be able to survive in good health. And that is not an overstatement.
If I would oversimplify the year, I would start by separating the good from the bad, at the risk of being cheesy.
The year started with the devastating fires in Los Angeles, here in the US, and so much war and torture everywhere else. The struggles, and authority oppression was only to come to our American cities throughout the year, too, sowing fear and rage amongst all of us, whether we were targets or not. Planes falling from the skies followed, social media and IT giants sold off to the new leadership, a lot more than usual, America starts striking places for what seems like petty, old reasons, throws its weight around in the world and threatens with imperialist expansion countries that didn’t see it coming; this was the year of several major infrastructure internet outages that paralyzed the world, more than I ever remember seeing in one short period of time; it was the year of more politically-motivated hate murders that occurred in the US and the year of the longest government shutdown in the US. Strikes in Canada and other places paralyzed the world. Dictators continued to steal elections, but some countries managed to overthrow some of these trials and came out victorious in the end, restoring or continuing their democratic tradition, like Romania did. A bright light ...
This was the year where we had war on almost every continent - Ukraine’s war is still raging on in Europe, the Israel-Palestinian war passed its two-year mark in the Middle East, Burma, Thailand in Asia and what seems like the whole continent of Africa are also in unrest. And where there is no war, there is violence. In normally peaceful places like Australia. I have felt like the whole world is sitting on a powder keg, and the fire is getting closer with every year, it seems. With no hope for a peaceful force to be reckoned with in sight. Nothing but violence and display of hatred, negativity, and evil.
On a personal level, we lost several people close to our hearts - friends, and pets (and yes, pets are people, too) - amongst which, a best friend in Florida that passed too soon of lung cancer, my nephews’ step grandpa who passed as doctors tried to repair an aorta tear; one of my nephews’ best friends, a little boy of 17 who died of a brain tumor. Cancer still sucks so much and continues to leave empty seats at the table and big holes in our hearts.
A highschool mate passed suddenly, without warning to many of us, and when someone your age goes and they go young, it gives you an even bigger jolt than usual forcing you to contemplate your own life’s fragility.
My mom has had a couple of brushes with hospital stays and her health continues to decline. But she is also around and we’re grateful for another year with her. It was another year of layoffs and fearing of losing healthcare, and other benefits. It was shaky and unstable but in the end, everything remained in place ... There is no guarantee for tomorrow, but then again, when is there?
We were grateful to be included in the lives of the young ones in our family and it was such a gift to watch them grow, search for themselves, graduate high school, get accepted to better schools, learn how to drive, get jobs, open businesses and be successful, get significant others and learn life ... The promise of tomorrow because of them is the silver lining for dark times like these.
The turmoil of the world affected us too, despite our best efforts to build a strong shield around us. The roller coaster of tariffs, and changes in laws never seems to be ending. One of my articles was censored for the first time, by, surprisingly, a Romanian magazine that deemed it “too anti-Trump”, alghough it marginally alluded to him - it was mostly about the current status of the American people, from my own point of view. A sign of the times. I am still grateful that at least for now, I can let these words reach the world ...
I consider the fact that I finally renewed my Romanian (which is also now a European Union) passport, a personal accomplishment this year. It was way past due, and if nothing else, maybe it will be easier for me to help my family settle all we need to settle with our birth country when the time comes. When I got my US passport, it felt like the biggest accomplishment of my life; and this year, renewing my birth-given rightful passport gave me a similar if not slightly more elevated high. This is to show you that perspective and context is everything and nothing changes faster and more often than cultural and historical context and perspective. Stay alert, but stay present and always know what your best solution is, even if it might not be your most favorite one.
Outside of the incredible number of hundreds of thousands of innocent people lost to war this year, the world got a little darker because we lost some of its brightest of lights - Jimmy Carter, David Lynch, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, Jane Goodall, Pope Francis, among so many of them. Ozzy Osborne and Rob Reiner also passed. And this is how the page turns on entertainment, and not only that. It might not be the same but who knows, maybe “different” would not be bad ...
It was a year of several difficult deaths, with young people killed, and kids dying of starvation. Can you imagine: humanity being as old as it is, and we’re still dying of famine! The simplest necessity of all? How can we allow this to happen? In addition, this was a year when some people were brutally murdered and close to us people committed suicide.
And yet, the year also brought so much hope and light, too. We were (still!) able to travel where we wanted, in peace, and relative safety. We went to live events with some of the people that bring openness and mindfulness to our lives - we went to a Jon Stewart live event in Richmond, VA, to a live talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson in Greensboro, NC and we met some of the stars of Twin Peaks in Virginia Beach, VA.
The highlight of my year, the breathtaking moment of the year that marked my half-century of life was of course, the opportunity of immersing myself into the world of Londolozi, the South African conservation reserve famous for photography safaris and so, so much more goodness to the world. After reading the book Cathedral of the Wild in 2020 (after learning about it in 2017), I finally was fortunate enough to travel to South Africa to keep my promise and spend my 50th birthday in this magical place ... Boyd Varty, the author and the son of one of the owners, sent me a personal video message on the big day, as I was eating my breakfast on the deck of the Varty Camp where everything started, overlooking the greenery on the Sand River. It was a breathless moment. His mom came to have breakfast with us the morning before. I notice here and there that my memory might not be what it used to be, but I hope that God will never erase this memory from my brain. So fortunate. So lucky. So blessed.
A common trend seems to be that people believe this was “the year for AI” - not sure yet whether we can speak of the “promise” or the “threat” of AI? Or, I suppose, a promise can have a good or a bad denouement? But all the strife and the goodness of the world, as far as I can tell, has still come from people. From humans doing human-ly things ... Or not doing them. From being way too human, perhaps, with all that is bad in that sense.
Just like a book, or just like life, this year has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity and the world. We take the scars and the joys forward and move on through the years, if we’re lucky.
I am adding some pictures that will complete this year’s memory of what will stay with me forever.
The one thing I do know for sure: what I felt in the African veld, listening to the ring-neck dove cooing, watching the impalas graze, ever watchful of the many dangers around them, the millions of years of wisdom imparted with me through a leopard’s stare right into the core of my being as she was lovingly guarding her cub peacefully asleep, the wind in my hair as Jerry, our ranger, was throwing the landy from ditch to ditch on the dirt roads cutting through Londolozi, or driving through crocodile-filled waters, the openness, kindness, love, and respect of the Shangan people, the selflessness of their sharing their culture with us, what they all made me learn about the world and about myself in those short four days at Londolozi - THAT will remain with me forever from this year, as its most lasting stamp.
A dear author says “grace bats last” and many, many wise thinkers assure us that peace and kindness always win, in the end. Sometimes, I am exhausted from waiting, and hoping, and praying, and voting right, and being an example for good. But it’s the only way forward. Everything this year has shown me and taught me only deepened and strengthened this belief ...
Good hope and a good year to all for 2026!
One of the meaningful milestone trips this year, was revisiting Robert Redford's hideaway piece of heaven - Sundance, in Utah. This is one of the timeless spots that we hope will remain untouched ...
It's tough to find Montreal in a picture-perfect season. But June seemed to be like hitting the jackpot! The beauty and serenity of the Botanical Gardens never disappoints.
Dinner in a library. Almost. The former library at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA is now a very nice restaurant. Beautiful preservation of the place.
The Ximungwe female leopard sharing with me her wordless wisdom. An unforgettable, as it was humble, moment.
Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, Kimmy Robertson, Harry Goaz from Twin Peaks in conversation with Sabrina Sutherland, the producer of Twin Peaks, The Return. Virginia Beach, VA.
The Palace of Culture towers over my home town of Iasi, Romania as it has all of my life. I think every time that I would find it changed and it stubbornly surprises me with the contrary.
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