Here's what I know
Tasting the intentions of 2026 on my tongue
Here’s what I know: Less urgency. Less thinking you know better. More presence. More delight in the mystery than despair in the unknown. Less searching for the final result without taking the first step. More full-album listens, less relying on the algorithm to build your taste for you. More choosing, more intention, more presence.
Be here now.
You want to know what is most true. You want to know what will happen if you’re right. You think everything can be right or wrong, one way or another. Can it be everything or none of the above or some of it sometimes? Can experiences be experiences with varying degrees of meaning, and some with none at all?
I think, actually, this may be the most me I’ve ever been. In that I fret so little about my presentation and just concern myself with showing up. There is a gentleness to my life I didn’t have before. I spent weekend morning poring over the crossword, rushing nowhere. I sit on my terrace for as long as I want, cradling my coffee mug I so lovingly picked out. I set aside time to do…nothing. I feel present, rooted, feet firmly on the ground after nearly five years of drifting.
But I feel weariness at these reflections now, I think. The before-and-after analyses. I’ve written so many essays to this effect – for good reason! – but my life has changed. Perhaps, with my feet firmly planted, I can turn my focus elsewhere. How I’m feeling now, not compared to before. I feel a call to presence so fervent it’s almost urgent. Be here now.
I want to take my time. I want to sit with an album for weeks instead of tossing two songs onto a playlist and forgetting the rest. I want to buy physical books and underline my favorite passages. I want to do things consistently and for a while. I want to do what I say I’m going to do. I want to plan out the year by seasons, not just months. I did most of The Artist’s Way in Q4, pausing for travel and the holidays, and it showed me just how much I can show up every day and make time for what I care about. I want to feel clear on my own presence. Where am I showing up, how, why? I’m beginning to really take shape here. People are beginning to really know me here. I now have layers of friends – acquaintances, friends, close friends. An ever-fuller life.
And so I’m declaring myself. What it means to be Maeve in Hamburg, in Germany, in my 30s. Letting myself want things and daring to ask for them. My word of the year is desire – honoring it, fulfilling it, chasing it, being in it. It’s harder than I expected. When you restart your life from scratch and spend most of your time building social connections, you spend a lot more time thinking about other people’s wants than your own. You want to connect, so of course you ask about what they want. Where do you like to get coffee? How do you shape your weekends? You have a friend you think I might like, of course I’ll meet them. You build a life by others inviting you into theirs. But when there’s enough structure, your own desire starts to mount because now you have enough to build upon. You have the audacity to ask for more once you’ve seen how much more there can be.
There is an itching in me. I want my energy matched. I want hours-long conversations and big laughs that echo long after they end. I want to feel seen, known. I want to give people the opportunity to see me, and thus, give myself a chance to be seen. Presence is the only way.
Keep building the circumstances you want to be in. Live every day in honor of how you want tomorrow to take shape. How up where and how you want to be. Be it.
Ins & Outs
In: Buying things in person and letting each object have intention + memory attached to it. Tschüss to mindless online shopping.
In: Red! Royal blue! Patterns! | Out: any additional olive green, white t-shirts, or anything navy – my wardrobe cannot take it anymore!
In: Telling everyone I love them all the time
In: Selecting & cooking a cookbook recipe at least monthly, even if it’s just for me
In: Pursuing art at every possible moment and inviting others to join me along the way – album listening parties! Continuing to see a movie in theaters every month! Finally seeing some live theatre! Singing lessons? Acting lessons? Who knows!
Out: The same cycle of three websites I use to fill my time between work tasks. This is a horrible habit that’s just as bad as scrolling my phone but feels less sinful because work is open in a neighboring tab.
Out: Being scared to pursue German more vigorously. I have a horrible limiting belief that my German will never be as good as my French and therefore there’s no point in trying. But I also have a keen awareness of how much it limits my life year and I have a fervent desire (!) to live more of my life auf Deutsch. I am capable!
Out: Thinking my world stops at 6pm and I cannot commit to doing anything productive beyond that unless it’s Work™. Yes, couch time is important, but it’s not vital every single available evening. I’m building in Admin Nights to rock up at the same café one night every week to get life admin done.
In: Leaving enthused comments/responses to people’s posts/stories regardless of how recently we’ve chatted 1:1. I am always delighted to hear from people no matter, therefore I can do the same in kind.
In: Radical patience with myself. Having a lust for life also means pacing myself.
"Telling everyone I love them all the time” YES!
Love this word of the year! Desire, what a wonderful thing to chase in 2026. Mine is Becoming! Hope your year is joyful