2026: The Year of the Fire Horse

According to Chinese astrology, 2025 was the Year of the Green Wood Snake. Next year, 2026 is going to be an Year of the Fire Horse. The year is predicted to be a year of courage, transformation and powerful movement. The last Fire of the Horse year was 1966 and the Fire energy returns to awaken passion and purpose. There is a superstition that there will be fires that will burn in the Fire year. 

10 January

What you require is a realignment in your thinking as the self-help books go. Sometimes, you need to find stories of survival that are quite different from what you have known and it requires a good deal of strength to come unscathed out of a crumbled world. But you need words, stories, narratives and strategies that helped you survive. These words become reminders that you have survived and that you have learnt how to create new worlds out the remnants. What I say is that you need to realign your world from whatever pieces are left of you and build a new perspective that will help you in being happy.10 

9 January

There are times when you want a happy ending in life either with the one you had married or with the one you love but when these thoughts strike you already make into some form of a fiction and you are already under the impression that happy endings are part of fiction and not life. You need memories of the past to make you understand that most of life are repeated experiences as Coelho says teaching things that one is not ready to learn. When I was younger, I was much fascinated by the connections between fiction and real life. There are times when you feel that your life resembles fiction and sometimes fiction is so life-like. 

8 January

This year I have observed the rituals of moving on to the new year and done some introspection at the end of it. In some places, they call it a year ending ritual of moving inward and thinking about what all plans you might have for your next year. These plans could deal with materialistic aims or spiritual goals. For me, I have always wanted to write a book and what I scribble down I want to edit and create a book that can be read by a general reader with curiosity.

I haven't written like this in a long time with only a few lines a day. This year, I got myself a diary with a green cover that says Save Our Trees, Save Our Earth. I am thinking of switching to the virtual format though as this business of writing down thoughts has become too tedious.

As I told you, this last year has been one of good fortune for various reasons. One doubts every year whether one has learnt enough. This life has been full of ups and downs, at times with nothing to bring in happiness. Despite troubles, one has survived though not overcome the obstacles that life threw in its paths. And regarding the blank pages, they can inspire a dull spirit by bringing back life. I felt something come alive within me as I stared at the fresh-scented blank pages and the urge to fill them took over every other feeling that I was having and I took my pen and started writing.

7 January

When I was much younger, I wanted to become a writer and I filled in all the blank pages that I saw. I learnt new words and ways of writing but never thought of putting my mind to writing a journal down. What I feel is that may be, I lacked the determination that was needed to publish a book or create one. But every day was filled with reading books that was of interest to the self with plenty of pages that contained my thoughts.

Now, I still have words with me and the urge to fill blank pages with them. I wonder at life’s decisions and whether I have taken them right. Most of the time, I struggle with life and memory and words but when good memories come to my mind, I scribble them down into some pieces of fiction and that is what has been on my mind lately. Though these thoughts might be good or bad, I started a journal to scribble about them.

6 January

A finished task can bring so much of happiness especially if it is a piece of writing. You look at the perfection of the print and wonder at the content and day is spent at admiring yourself and your writing skills though it could be a just a letter at the workplace or even a small message you had to compose. writing is a form of art for you and you recall the years that you had spent time creating content. there are times when you miss those times especially meeting your deadlines and getting praised for the kind of job you did. At present, those times look so distant and you have lost this habit of scribbling down thoughts, stories of movies you have watched, books you have read, music that kept you raving and the experiences you have had. 

5 January

You sit with a pen and a blank page and words come and visit you from somewhere. You just scribble down your thoughts and there are these thoughts that are on the books you have read, the movies you have watched, the songs that you played nonstop on your phone and the experiences you have had. This was the habit until you started editing your writing and posting them on your blog.

Now, sitting with a blank page before me and it scares me if I am unable to jot down a few thoughts. There are attempts to find balance in an uncertain world through the act of writing. You feel that there are dreams of becoming a writer but they are eclipsed by this desire to write, indulge in the writing spree, the act of word after a word after a word in the words of Margaret Atwood.