Fire Horse Energy...

2026 is the year of the fire horse.  This seems fitting to me.  And I think I am ready.  I feel the need to gallop forward in my life.  I am not completely sure where I am going, but, nevertheless, I feel horse energy moving in.  Now if you haven’t spent much time around horses, then you might not know that they are some of the most delicate creatures on the planet.  And sensitive!  Oh my, one of our horses is afraid of plastic bags, changes in the color of pavement.  The are easily startled and always on alert.  And I guess I should have really written that that they are always on alert which is why they are easily startled.  And I can so relate to that way of being.  I am constantly and forever on high alert.  And so, I do not enjoy, at all, being startled.

But horses also have big energy...all of them.  They are capable of dramatic and amazing things and when you add the heat of fire into this combination, 2026 seems to be calling us all into big energy, forward movement and alignment. And I love that.  I identify way more with fire horse energy than I do wood snake energy.  Not calling one better than the other, but just fire horse just feels like I will enjoy it more.  Going inward, reflecting is never comfortable because so often I do not enjoy what I find lurking there in my subconscious.

I do feel this last year I spent internally reorganizing myself has been useful and a good use of energy.  It has not been all that pleasant.  But I think, I hope, I am now able to turn all this introspection and intuition into fodder for new growth in my outward life, relationships and the way I live this life.

I love this time of year, as we draw to the close one completed cycle of life and living.  I heard someone the other day say that life is just one cycle of season:  Birth to 30 = Spring;  30-50 Summer; 50-70 Autumn; and 70+ Winter.  I had never really thought about life like this but it made sense...for a minute.  But while it is convenient to describe youth as spring and renewal, I will say I have had way more renewal in my 50s than I ever did in my earlier life.  So I decided I don’t really love this whole thing about life being one seasonal cycle.  

Instead, I like the idea that life, each year, is all four seasons.  And I grow in capacity and knowledge in relation to each of those seasons.  Spring always brings a sense of hope and prosperity, summer always brings a bit of exhaustion because I am out there in all that daylight having so much fun, autumn is always the time I feel most connected with others and then I tend to drop into a seclusion in winter where I just kind of hibernate and spend a great deal of time inward looking.  And I can see that each have their purpose and need in my life.

I would love things to be as tidy as youth is all spring and early adulthood is all summer, etc.  But it just isn’t.  Each stage of life has had many seasons.  And I have benefited from them all.  And as I grow ever nearer to Winter life, I will tell you that I am quite excited that my life shall still possess Springs and Summers and Autumns.  Thank fucking God!  If Winter was all death and decay and slowing, that would suck, totally.

I am reminded again that we get out of this life what we put into it.  And I know that my energetic levels are greatly influenced by the amount of light and darkness in each day, the temperature and the seasons.  And I am grateful and love each of them.  Autumn being my most favorite, always.  Which is where I seem to find myself currently.

But as 2026 approaches and we move into fire horse energy, I find myself excited about all that outward expelled experience.  I tend to crave that and find my life less meaningful when I do not have it.  I can’t say that I have enjoyed all this inwardness of 2025, but I do think I have put it to good use.  And now, I am ready for something new and fun to arrive.

The snake cleared my path and now the horse shall move me forward. I am ready.  I think...maybe.  Well, it really doesn’t matter, life doesn’t wait for you to be ready, it just does its thing and you adjust and grow and change, or you suffer.  And sometimes you do all of that at one time:  grow and suffer, change and suffer and adjust and suffer.  Or sometimes, if you are lucky, you are able to hold it all well and you are able to live with the idea and in a manner that suffering is both unavoidable and optional.  Which is a dichotomy that no longer plagues me, but instead supports all of my life...

Again, still...