Choosing Our Battles at the Start of a New Year

The first day of 2026. I look out at the ocean and, for a moment, I feel blessed to be here. After an entire night of torrential rain and wind, the clouds begin to break apart, and the sun’s light emerges — soft, tentative, uncertain. Yet the waves remain immense, crashing violently against the shore, as if the storm has not truly passed.

Facing the ocean, I feel small. Not poetically small, but genuinely so. Insignificant. Replaceable.

And then this thought comes to mind: choose your battles.

At the beginning of a new year, we like to believe we can choose. That if we are conscious enough, aware enough, we can steer our lives in a better direction. And yet reality keeps reminding us that much of what happens to us lies beyond our control.

Perhaps humility in the face of life does not mean giving up responsibility, but accepting its limits. Acknowledging that not all battles are ours and that sometimes even our reactions are not fully free, but shaped by old fears, early attachments, and histories we did not choose.

The year ahead will inevitably place us in situations that escape our control. What we do then will not always be a clear or correct choice. Sometimes it will simply be what we are able to do in that moment.

Maybe true responsibility is not about mastering life, but about remaining attentive. Attentive to our thoughts. To the emotions that quietly guide us. To the small gestures that, without us noticing, slowly shape our future.

The ocean does not ask us to conquer it. Nor to fully understand it. Only to know when to step into the water, and when it is wiser to remain on the shore.

Happy New Year!

Simina