Happy New Year – more glimmer and less chaos please

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”

Dale Carnegie

I wish I was a bit more bright and glimmery today

I took the cover photo of today’s blog just this week when I was in Arosa, Switzerland. At first it was just a photo, but then it grew into my message to my readers. It helped me think about how vast the universe is, and how small our little planet is, despite its overwhelming share of pain in the moment. The photo made me ask the question, “Are we worrying too much about tomorrow instead of being present and active today?”

This month, doomscrolling reached a new level of desperation with the never-ending amount of content in U.S. politics, world affairs, and environmental catastrophes. If 2026 was to be a bit more gentle, it certainly is not living up to its expectations.

I used to wake up, grab a cappuccino in the kitchen, and return to bed in my pajamas. There, I sorted through the host of news and social media apps to enlighten me. I wanted to know what happened in Italy and around the world while I was sleeping. It was entertaining to see photos from my various friends and family, and receive updates on who was traveling where. But recently, things took a spiral toward an unknown and bleak destination.

Entertainment on social media is dead. Stories are becoming darker and more sinister. They intermingle with videos of people being shot on the streets in Minneapolis and advertisements for things I have no interest in buying or seeing.

Judging by my Facebook algorithm feed, I think I need wool socks from Scandinavia. Or maybe I could try out an air fryer, or a new bracelet. I bet I would look great in baggy corduroy pants for 20-somethings. Perhaps a luxury cruise with Ritz-Carlton to some exotic destination is the answer. Maybe I should have a deeper understanding of my astrological inner child patterns. If that’s not enough, there is always a Facebook advertisement for an AI-generated boyfriend available that doesn’t ask any questions, knows no limits, and can be dominant or submissive. (Am I the only one seeing those AI boyfriend advertisements?)

I’m not sure what the folks at Facebook analytics are doing these days, but they got me all wrong. I am not in the market for any of the above. I am, however, looking for a good dose of common human decency amongst the noise. Sometimes it’s best to pick up a good book or stream something on Netflix.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled life of consumption for this word from our sponsor: Reality

When an ICE agent shot Renee Good in Minneapolis this month, I searched for updates, while avoiding the horrific videos. Instead, Facebook was pushing a ‘life as usual” narrative with unrelenting and uninteresting advertisements. It was as if the real news wasn’t happening in Minneapolis, but that it was more of a distraction. Life was consumption as usual. The human interest was less important.

Where lies the space to make a difference between the news and the dread? I would like to wake up and read that some really big problem has been solved. Maybe the white rhinoceros is no longer endangered, or our rainforests are protected. Where is the next billionaire who will give away his fortune instead of building a rocket ship. Perhaps a needless war ends, or a minority is no longer marginalized.

I had big expectations for 2026. Everything I read said that 2025 was an astrological year of purging bad energy and starting a new, fresh path. I didn’t realize that 2026 was going to be a real-life version of The Hunger Games or The Purge.

I wake up now and instead of scrolling the news, I play The New York Times games. I’ve become particularly fond of Sudoku. I find that it’s the perfect accompaniment with my cappucino. It’s more calming to put my efforts into solving a series of puzzles than to watch the world fall apart underneath my feet.

Finding beautiful things when the world seems anything but beautiful

So, how do we continue to maintain a sense of hope while channeling the rage into constructive and positive change? As a dear friend of mine shared with me recently, we have to look for those moments of glimmer among the shadows. They are the sparkling and shiny surprises and invitations to enjoy life that are all around us. They don’t scream for attention like the dark things do. However, they are ever present in the still and quiet spaces just slightly outside of our focus.

With everything that happened, and as I shared in my last blog, I wasn’t feeling Christmas this year. I could have passed the holiday alone quite easily when two long-time friends called to invite me to join them just a few hours away near Toulon, France. We met many years ago in France and became a trio of friends who managed to survive the pandemic together with weekend escapes to Bordeaux, wine buying in Saint-Émilion, and road trips to scour antique markets and estate sales in the region. When I left France for Rome in 2022, distance made our lives grow apart.

This Christmas Eve, I drove to the small coastal town of Hyères and checked into the beautiful hotel they had picked, Le Hameau des Pesquiers. The hotel was a former salt mining operation on the Mediterranean coast of France. Its peak of production was in the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century, before falling into disrepair. Many of the rooms were refurbished salt workers’ homes brought back to life in a luxurious and eco-sustainable manner. It was the perfect place to celebrate and reacquaint with my friends. It was also the perfect place to find unexpected sparkling fun amongst the dark background of all the current events.

My friends set an elegant table and even brought in fine china and silverware from their home near Bordeaux. On Christmas Eve we dined picnic-style in the hotel room with raclette cheese made in the raclette toaster that I brought with me from Italy. We laughed as we reminisced about our lives in France and the stories we created during the crazy times of the pandemic.

We had walks into the quiet villages over the holiday and caught up on life’s happenings, as well as found many memories that still made us laugh out loud. It was a surprisingly marvelous Christmas that required little effort to plan, but simply being open and aware of the glimmer of the moment.

Life as we know it is still worth the fight

As the world draws further away from calm and closer to chaos, I’m doing my best to stay positive and find a way to remain a light in the world. The sound of the unrest in America is deafening, and the impact is global. It’s impossible not to turn on the news in Europe and see that the top story is another flip-flop in American policy, or the ratcheting up of another threat as the world bends towards compliance and then desperately tries to pivot away. All of it feels like a far cry from the global order we have enjoyed for decades, as lines are being drawn and sabers are rattling everywhere.

Just a few valleys away from where I stayed this week, is Davos, Switzerland, where the world’s leaders are meeting at the World Economic Forum. I am trying to hold on to normalcy while nearby the leaders of the free world are galvanizing and trying to hold on to European security and fend off a direct threat to our future and the future of the world’s stability.

My perspective has changed after living the last seven years in Europe. I may be biased, but I believe Europe is the crown jewel in our world’s ancient and modern eras. There is nowhere else in the world where one can travel a few hours and have everything change so wonderfully and magically. Here, you find the most incredible mix of history, language, customs, and culture packed into its 44 recognized countries. Without a free Europe, there would be so much lost of what is civilization’s magical story. Europe and our free world are worth fighting for even if we can’t see the end point.

So despite the news cycle and the doomscrolling stories of terror and destruction, stay informed but stay positive. It’s no longer acceptable to sit on the sidelines and silently watch communities be torn apart over politics and economics. It’s also not acceptable to lose your hope and your will to stand up and be that glimmering moment that someone is looking to find.

So as we worry about tomorrow, and what it may bring, let’s not fail to see the glimmer in today and try to make a difference where and while we can. Above all, be safe and do no harm.

I dedicate this blog to the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti who lost their lives while trying to be a moment of glimmer and hope in another person’s world. If you have any advice or comments you would like to share, please post them below. I always find strength in shared experiences and similar stories. If you’d like to receive my updates regularly, please sign up with your email below.