2026

 Meditation for a New Year • January 1, 2026.

Michael Sedano

The sun this grey January day rises only to be shrouded by grey overcast making January First twenty-twenty six one of those cheerless winter days, wet, chilly, just the day for a fire, for remembering, for locating space to hold the fulness of memories.

This day, this year, is time for taking perspective. Now that so much has changed, there are ideas to pursue, experiences to relish, to find a place for some memories to rest.

2026. Another first day of the year. 80 of them in a lifetime, 57 of them since getting married and starting our tradition of eggs benedict on New Year morning. Three years since Barbara died. Today, I appreciate our tradition in a solitary meal, sorting out what was joyful and important.

Our first New Year, 1969, arrives clouded by dread it would be our only and last. I have 18 days remaining until reporting to the Draft. July of ’69 I’m immersed in high adventure, stationed atop the world’s highest missile site near the Korean DMZ.

I take R&R in Tokyo for Xmas and New Year 1970. (Link) Barbara flies to join me. We spend our second new year day in Tokyo, knowing we have only a few hours until my leave expires and her flight to LAX. We have a deluxe Japanese breakfast served in the Shibuya-ku Ryokan Barbara reserved for our reunion week. She wears the silk kimono jacket we bought on our first walkabout and shopping foray and smiles at my camera.

Tokyo is everything Korea isn’t. Abundance versus rationing.  I have not eaten fresh fruit since July. Army mess halls don’t serve fruit of any kind. Stores in Tokyo look like Grand Central Market in DTLA. I buy ten tangerines every day to devour sitting on the tatami, laughing with Barbara counting down our measured days together. 

We remembered that week for the rest of our lives.

I thickened the hollandaise in the microwave this year, and while it was delicious and mostly silky, it wasn’t quite right. Today’s breakfast is a good NewYear memory, packed into yet another January First. 

I sipped Korbel Brut and cleaned up the kitchen. Then, because I can, I finished the champagne reliving cherished memories of days before everything changed, relishing thoughts of the coming year. I always do that.