Whenever the year winds down, I take time to consider the days behind me. What was the good of it? What did I learn from it? How can I adapt in the year to come? 2025 has been, to put it vaguely, a challenge. Unlike any year I can remember. I often feel outmatched by the changes in my personal and professional life, the infighting in this country, and the loss of life from wars abroad.
Then I consider this quote by Mister Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.’” And that’s what I’d like to do in this space. Of course, I’m grateful for good health, friends, and family. In a culture that incentivizes wealth, these intangibles are the only riches.
But let me take a moment to thank, especially, Susan Hines-Brigger, Daniel Imwalle, Frank Gutbrod, and Stephen Copeland, who are in the trenches with me every day in service to a 133-year-old magazine that is, at its core, designed to make you feel less alone, less outmatched by trauma. This team, supported by talented writers and contributors (you’ll find their names throughout each issue), makes this work not only important, but fun.
“We happy few,” as Shakespeare wrote in Henry V, are bound by friendship, years of tears and laughter, a heaping teaspoon of mental instability, and an unspoken oath to share the spirituality of Clare and Francis as widely as possible. Because it is a healer. I feel in my heart they are proud of our work. We certainly are.
2026 has yet to show her face, but I know that my lay colleagues and this beautiful magazine have made the journey worth taking. So, my thanks to them. And to you, our readers, wherever you are. We’re in it together.
