Hello and welcome, Reader!

The first days of the year often feel strange.

Not quite a beginning.
Not fully an ending.

We stand somewhere in between: carrying what has closed, and sensing what has not yet taken shape.

This year, that in-between space feels especially powerful for me.

When Something Ends, and Something Else Whispers ❄️

By the end of last year, a global platform I worked with as a freelancer had stopped its operations.
It was sudden, emotional, and unfinished in many ways.

And yet — almost immediately — something else began to form.

Together with other colleagues and friends, I’ve started organizing conversations around building a new kind of platform — one based on cooperative and democratic economy principles:

• shared ownership,
• free access to information,
• a real voice in decisions,
• and participation in the value we create together.

I don’t know how this will unfold.
But I feel inspired by the alternative it represents and by the impact it could have on many people around the world.

An ending.
A beginning.
Held in the same breath.

A Different New Year 🌵

This year, for the first time in almost forty years, I didn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve with my whole family.

The routines changed.
The traditions loosened their grip.

No big table.
No endless preparations.
No familiar movie I had watched every December 31 for years, something I once called “tradition.”

Instead, I read Murakami’s first published novel.
I had a simple dinner.
A light canapé-style table.
One glass of champagne.

And it felt… not just enough.

It felt lighter.
More aligned with who I am now.

Not better.
Not worse.
Just honest.

Listening to the Body’s Signals 😇

By the end of the year, I also felt fatigue and some physical signals I could no longer ignore.

Nothing dramatic.
But enough to force a pause.

A change in rhythm.
A change in habits.
Even a step back from a glass of good wine in the evening—something I once used as a way to “rest.”

And here, too, I saw it clearly:

So I’m exploring alternatives — new ways to rest, recover, and care for myself.

Again: an ending.
Again: a beginning.

The Word That Keeps Returning 💫

If I had to choose one word for this moment, it would be alternative.

Not as rebellion, but as curiosity.

Not as rejection, but as alignment.

2026, Week 1: Clarity 🐣

This week, I’m opening Week 1 — Clarity in my new book-journal
​A Year of Gentle Transformation.

Here’s the quote I’m holding close:

“Clarity is not a sudden light.
It’s a quiet decision to see what is already here.”
​— Unknown

I would love for you to join me in practicing this year.

Not by forcing answers.
But by allowing them.

An Invitation for the Year Ahead 🫶

📒 If you feel drawn to begin this year differently — with reflection instead of pressure — A Year of Gentle Transformation is the right choice for you.

You’re welcome to join me, week by week, in choosing clarity over noise and alternatives over autopilot.

We are standing between endings and beginnings.

And that, too, is a place worth honoring.

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With warmth,

Elena

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