Heard it on the Podcast - January 14, 2026

 

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

14-JAN-2026

S6E2: Anatomy of an Epidemic

Investigative journalist and author Robert Whitaker examines the roots of today’s mental health epidemic in his book Anatomy of an Epidemic. In this episode, we review his arguments and question whether the psychiatric drugs we trust to heal us may be contributing to the crisis. Are the treatments meant to make us better actually making us worse—and if so, why?

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Here are the links from this episode:

• Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker

More on this topic will follow in future episodes. Until then, don't forget to visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think!  

Anatomy of an Epidemic

 

In 2022, I read Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. To say that I was skeptical would be an understatement. I started this weighty discourse ready to debunk the author’s claims. After all, we’ve had psychiatric medicines for years – surely they are helpful to the millions of Americans, including myself, who take them daily, right? The idea that the medications that are supposed to cure us could be worse than the condition itself is unthinkable. Yet this is the very concept Robert Whitaker is presenting.

It did not take long for my skepticism to evolve into outrage as I read case study after case study in which patients were very obviously misdiagnosed and over-medicated. The book also revealed how these psychotropic drugs were discovered in the first place, and why the concept of a “chemical imbalance” is not only a misnomer, but an out-and-out lie. By the time I got to the end of this book, I was determined to get off my prescribed antidepressants and to convince my family members to do so as well.

This week’s podcast is the beginning of an exploration of this profoundly disturbing book. We started recording and realized, almost two hours into the episode, that we had barely touched on the subject and would need to break it into multiple installments, as we did with the series on Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth in 2022. It’s a lot of information, but I hope you’ll stick with us. I promise it will be worth it in the end. It might just change your life. It has certainly changed mine.

Beliefs, Ego, and Boundaries

 

This week, our podcast focused on the need for some people to share their personal beliefs whenever the topic of discussion touches on an area where it would fit. These assertions are most often about politics and religion, but can also pertain to other, less contentious topics. While Christen and Amber say they are more likely to “check out” of the conversation, I’ve found I can’t do that, especially when the comments are directed at me. It’s tough because I am often the leader or organizer of the group, so it's in my best interest to help maintain the peace. I also know that I am not the only one facing this behavior. So, what is a girl supposed to do?

While our conversation helped me see other points of view on the matter, it didn’t really help me resolve my problem. Talking about ego (a la Eckhart Tolle) and the various mental health insights provided by Amber helped clarify the why of this behavior, but offered no real clues on how to discourage it without hurting anyone’s feelings. I needed suggestions, so I dared to ask ChatGPT.

Posing the question to AI allowed me to use a few more specifics about the situation that I couldn’t share on the podcast (don’t worry, I didn’t share any names or personal info). We had a nice little “chat” about it, and I feel like I understand the situation even better than I did after we recorded the podcast. And while Christen was at least partially right about ego being involved, AI confirmed that the behavior isn’t so much about social identity (fitting in) or convincing others as it is an affirmation for the individual – basically self-validating their beliefs. It’s basically an emotional survival function. People repeat certain beliefs not to convince others, but because they need to hear it again themselves. Without this reaffirming statement, the individual might begin to doubt their belief and might therefore have to confront particular anger, injustice, or powerlessness that they don’t want to face. No malice involved here…just self-preservation. I get it. I’ve done it myself.

I am reminded of something I read in Brené Brown’s Rising Strong. In it, Brown asks, “Are they doing the best they can?” I often have to ask myself this question when I see people behaving in ways I question or dislike. I have to admit that the answer is usually, “yes.” I find that when I understand why someone behaves in a certain way, it’s much easier to give them the benefit of the doubt – to be more forgiving. When we look at things that way, we are all doing the best we can under the circumstances, right? And I can see that in most cases, this behavior helps the person who’s doing it in some way. More than likely, they assume that since the belief is helpful to them, it would be beneficial to others as well. 

However, understanding why someone does something does not negate the need for specific boundaries. If a behavior is hurtful, whether intentional or not, it must be addressed; otherwise, we risk irreparably damaging the relationship. Often, an individual may not even realize that their statements are dismissive or harmful to others. Boundary blindness is a common issue and refers to difficulty recognizing, respecting, or maintaining personal boundaries – either one’s own, other people’s, or both. Boundaries are one of the most frequently reported problems in relationships. Establishing and maintaining boundaries can be difficult, but it is well worth it for keeping the peace. Here, again, AI had a few suggestions.

The key, according to ChatGPT, is to address the issue without attacking the underlying belief. 

• Never argue about whether the belief is true. Instead, focus on impact and boundaries. If you argue the validity of the belief or state that you (or others) believe differently, you activate defensiveness in the other person. It will only make them dig in harder as it threatens their psychological safety. Focusing on how you feel, not what they are doing wrong, separates that person’s belief (which is valid for them) from its impact on you (it’s not helpful).  For example, “I know that believing _________ brings you comfort, and I respect that. But when I’m dealing with _________, hearing __________ actually feels painful and invalidating to me.” 

• Name the repetition Gently. Point out how often the topic comes up by saying something like “I’ve noticed this comes up almost every time we talk about hard things, and I want to be honest that it’s hard for me to hear repeatedly.” This shifts it from being accusatory to being descriptive. 

• Set a boundary if needed. If the person persists, then it’s okay to get firmer, just don’t be cruel. You could say something like, “I understand this belief is important to you, but I need to ask that you not apply it to my experiences. If it comes up again, I may change the subject or step away.” It’s a boundary, not a punishment.

Having this conversation may not convince the person that their belief is unhelpful in general, but you can make it clear that it is unhelpful to you. If the person is emotionally healthy enough, they will adapt. Otherwise, it might be time to limit how much you share with this person. You may have to adapt yourself to avoid discussions that could lead to undesirable outcomes. Or you could honor your boundary and leave the room.

Heard it on the Podcast - January 7, 2026

 

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

7-JAN-2026

S6E1: NAME

We all know about the topics one should never discuss in polite company, so why are we compelled to share our beliefs even when we know others may not agree? Is it ego? Do we seek validation? Or are we just stirring the pot?

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Here are the links from this episode:

• Social Identity Theory
• Cognitive Disonance
• Confirmation Bias
• Psychological Reactance
• Dialectical Thinking
• Contrarian Thinking
• Edge Method of Teaching/Learning

Don't forget to visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think! 

 

Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot - A Reading for the New Year

 

I can’t believe that 2025 has already come and gone. Now it’s time for me to set my intentions for 2026, work out my goals, let go of things that no longer serve me, and draw my annual New Year’s Tarot reading. Since many of you may be getting set up for the new year with your own goal-setting and tarot spread, I thought I would share my process here.

I found this awesome 12-card spread on the blog of Biddy Tarot, one of my favorite tarot instructors on the internet. Rather than a month-by-month breakdown of my year, this one focuses on key lessons, aspirations, and specific life areas, including relationships and emotions, work and finances, health and well-being, and spirituality and fulfillment. I love this because it aligns with my goal-setting. 

I started with a bit of meditation just to clear my head of any stray worries or obligations. It’s always good to have an open mind and heart. I used the Wild Unknown deck by Kim Krans, given to me by a friend. I love this deck for the striking visuals. It’s not so great if you need clues from the artwork to recall the card meanings, though. I also noted that the Strength card (#8 in the traditional tarot deck) and Justice (#11) had their numbers swapped in this deck. I assumed it was a printing error, and since the cards are Major Arcana, the number doesn’t really matter so much as the subject of the card, so I read them that way.

As I turned each card, I jotted down the keywords and meanings, noting any reversals. Because I am not as familiar with this deck and because I have other decks and descriptions I like a lot, I also referred to those. In all, I read the cards four times, noting the meanings from the Wild Unknown deck, Biddy Tarot’s website, the Light Seer’s deck, and the Original Rider Waite: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A. E. Waite. Some of you might be surprised to know that while most of the meanings were the same or similar, there was quite a bit of divergence between them, which is one of the reasons why I like to refer to as many different resources as possible and not just rely on my own memory and/or intuition when reading cards for myself. Sometimes, the meaning just doesn’t fit.

If you’ve been following along on the podcast, you’ll recall that Amber, Christen, and I have been using AI quite a bit lately for various things. I mainly use it to clarify my thoughts and distill them into actionable lists. Since so much information was gathered in this 12-card draw, I decided to share my notes with ChatGPT to see if the results matched my own conclusions. I gave a brief description of myself:

Assume that I am a 61 year old white female, widowed with 3 grown children, a son-in-law, step-granddaughter and several couples who consider me a second mother figure who is a part-time travel agent, podcaster and blogger that loves to craft, what would the following 2026 New Year Tarot reading mean for me? Break it down by each card using the descriptions provided.

I followed this with my complete notes for each card, including all four resources. I was delightfully surprised by the accuracy of the interpretation. ChatGPT even managed to derive several highly relevant points that I completely missed – almost as if I’d had a reading from someone else because it eliminated the natural bias that occurs when reading for yourself or someone you know. 

If you’d like to see my complete notes, I’ve linked them below. You can also view the ChatGPT results. I’m going to keep these two versions together to refer back to throughout the year. I know that Christen has used ChatGPT to help her with her goal-setting for 2026 (hopefully she’ll share that with us!), so I might do the same, adding this tarot read to the prompt for further clarity. 

Let me know what you think! Was ChatGPT spot-on, or way off? Would you use it yourself or would you just go with your own instincts? I’d love to hear about it!

2026 New Year’s Tarot Spread

2026 ChatGPT Interpretation

Heard it on the Podcast - December 31, 2025

 

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

31-DEC-2025

S5E53: Recaps: Goals, Our Lives, and More

It's the end of the year and time to reset for 2026. Listen in as we share our progress on our goals and choose a Word of the Year for the next 12 months.

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Here are the links from this episode:

• One Little Word
• Jon Gordon - One Word
• Christine Kane - No longer available

Our words for 2026 are: Illuminate, Devotion, and Finish. 

To learn how Cindy discovered her word "Finish" for 2026, check out her blog post here: Finding My One Little Word

If you liked this episode, you might want to check out these:

• October 8, 2025:  Richard Webster's How to Write Your Own Magic and Nuumerology Part 1
• December 17, 2025:  Richard Webster's How to Write Your Own Magic and Numerology Part 2
• December 24, 2025:  Choosing and Setting up a New Year Planner
• November 10, 2021:  One Little Word
• Some of our One Little Word blog posts: HERE

Don't forget to visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think! 

Finding My One Little Word

For me, this time of year is crunch time – December almost always finds me deep in wrapping up the current year by finishing out unmet goals, setting up my planners for the coming year, and doing a lot of ritual exercises that help me narrow down what’s important to me and the goals I want to set going forward. In addition to going on a crafting retreat with my besties, trying to get my Christmas tree set up and the house decorated, checking off my gift list (including any handmade items I’m working on), baking cookies, candies, and everything in between. Usually, the one thing I usually am not doing is trying to pick out my next Word of the Year, which you may have heard us refer to as One Little Word.

My word usually comes to me around October with a solid landing right in my lap that says, “Hey! You know I’m the word for you, right?” But this year has been very different. This year is the second anniversary of the last holidays we spent with my husband, Mark, and the first time we’ve tried to get back to a “normal” routine, whatever that may be. It’s been a struggle. In fact, I think this fall has been even harder than last year and the grief has deepened as his loss has truly begun to sink in. It’s been a tumultuous fall on top of that, with multiple misfortunes including a refrigerator that had to be replaced and costly repairs to both of my vehicles that have zapped both my patience and my pocketbook. I haven’t had much time to think about my 2025 word, “Okay”, much less start thinking about 2026. I even mentioned as much on this week’s episode of the podcast. Luckily, I had a plan.

Over the course of the year, whenever a good word came to mind, I would jot it down in a little notebook I carry to make note of all things connected to my word. By the end of November, I had 20 words on a list that were all good candidates for my next word. I decided that the best way to pick among them was to hash out each word in my journal so that by the time I had done them all, hopefully something would stick out as the clear choice. It did, and I was really glad I used the process the way I did because it helped me figure out what I really needed. I’ve decided to share it here in hopes that it might help someone else hash out their own list of words in the same way. The following is my internal debate about each of my words, and what I chose.  

• Joy: I think joy would be a fun word to have. Not too hard, but still stretching myself to find joy wherever I am at the moment. I have gone through the process of being here, now, in the present and of being and finding light. Because of those words, I learned I needed more balance and I am working on being okay. I feel safe most of the time. Isn’t that the first rule or step in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs?* I know I have not always felt safe, so maybe that is another word to look into. But joy calls me in a way that I can’t explain. I do have fun sometimes, but joy feels so much more spontaneous. It is also fleeting. You can’t have a constant state of joy, can you?

• Love: Going back to Maslow’s Hierarchy, I see that love is right in the middle between safety and esteem. That makes sense because you can’t feel self-esteem if you don’t feel loved. I would like to work on feeling loved, but I think that choosing this word requires looking at it from both directions and the other side of it is giving love. While I certainly do both give and receive love, it is tricky because it is hard to love properly without self-esteem, and it is impossible to feel self-esteem without feeling loved. It is a double-edged sword because they are so intricately tied to each other. This one is definitely a consideration because it is a word I need to explore, but it would not be an easy word. I really did want something fun and easy for 2026.

• Accept: Acceptance is the opposite of resentment. It’s definitely something I should work on. It would also be a hard word just because I need to work on it. Acceptance definitely flows from now, but it feels like a separate branch. Acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm – Eckhart Tolle’s Three Modalities of Enlightened Doing. I do want to take on this word someday, but not right now. I am not ready for it. I am still growing and still exploring, and I am not ready to accept the status quo until I fully understand what the status actually is. I’m not even sure who I am most days. So if I don’t understand who, what, where, how, and why I am, then could I ever learn to accept it?

• Open: I love this word because it feels like someone who is ready for whatever comes next. That is definitely somewhere I want to be in my journey, but, once again, not quite yet. I think that before I can be open to new things (love, adventure, acceptance, joy…), I need to close out a few tabs that are still open. I need to make room for new things. What is it they say? “You can’t ride in every direction at the same time,” right? And that’s the way I feel right now - that I’m being pulled in multiple directions at the same time and there is so much going on in my life that I can’t focus on anything new. I don’t have space in my life to be open to new things. I need to focus on the status quo. Perhaps in time this word will be a wonderful addition to my repertoire.

• Content: Content is a lot like accept. In order to be content, you have to accept what is. I’m getting there, and I think someday i will get there, but I feel like I’m not quite ready. I think I have to work through accept first. Maybe even something like this: Accept >> Content >> Open >> Love >> Joy. That feels like a proper order. But there is so much I need to do before I can get to accept.  So, content is not ready to be my word.

• Whole: What a loaded word! I want to feel whole. In fact, that is what a lot of my shadow work is about – regaining my sense of self…putting all the shattered pieces of my psyche and my life back together in one piece. I know I am not there yet. Maybe once I select this as my word, if I select this as my word, I will be. But something tells me there is a lot more work to do before I can truly become whole. Accept would likely come before. Maybe others, too.

• Trust: Trust would be another good word to work on before I go to whole. I have a lot of trust issues – mainly because my life experience has taught me that the people whom I should trust the most have been the ones who are the least trustworthy. Abuse and neglect will do that to you. I’ve been let down by adults who were supposed to protect me and prioritize my well-being, including my parents, grandparents, the school system, churches, and more. I can’t name a single person alive today whom I fully trust because everyone has either abandoned me, used me, abused me, lied to me, or let me down in some way. That is some real deep, dark shadow work to dig into there. So trust is right out. Maybe in about 10 years if the other words work out.

• Yes: No. I only toyed with this word for a hot minute. I remember Felicitas from One Little Word chose yes one year and it seemed like an amazing journey for her. I would love to have yes as a word, but it flows from open and maybe even from trust, but I am not there yet. I am too overwhelmed by everything else in my life to add the possibility of more. I need to do less. To take care of my current circumstances. Yes is definitely a no.

• Creative: Creative is a word I could get behind. I want more than anything to have more creativity and more creative time in my life. I feel so inspired by all the things I see, hear, and feel. I want to do. I want to express it in every form imaginable. But I don’t have time. Taking on the word create would be the equivalent of the word yes. It would mean adding more and I just don’t have the mental or emotional capacity to deal with it. So, while this word is very tempting, I think I should put it on the shelf a little while longer.

• Flow: Flow…smooth…transition…progress…relaxed…no stress. Doesn’t it sound idyllic? It makes me think of the peace in a good yoga practice or the progress of a river or stream. Movement. Gentle movement. Right now, my life has so much chaos that I can’t even imagine a state of flow. No, that’s not right. I can imagine it, but it doesn’t seem at all possible. Earlier in the year, I thought it might be the perfect companion to okay and I was almost certain it would be my next word. But this year has not progressed the way I hoped it would. Okay has meant that I’m barely hanging on – barely getting by – not the positive affirmation of a life well in hand like I’d hoped it would be. I’m not driving this bus right now, and I just want to get off because it is more like the movie “Speed” than a relaxing river cruise.

• Perspective: Perspective is everything, isn’t it? When you look at things with fresh eyes, everything changes. Negativity becomes opportunity, stagnation becomes rest. Overwhelm becomes a clear path. Clarity comes from perspective and over the last few years, I have tried to practice viewing my life and circumstances with the aid of perspective. It has been a good companion to many of my words, whether I realized it at the time or not. This could easily be a word I choose, but if I do not, it can still be a good companion word. A new perspective is often what I need most.

• Purpose: What is life without purpose? It feels like an endless drifting from one task to another without any meaning. I have felt like that for a long time. I suppose my purpose when the kids were young was to raise them well. When they were grown, I felt a small amount of purpose in working on my relationship with Mark and organizing cruises and craft events. But that felt shallow and I always believed there should be something more. I started to actively seek my purpose in the early days of this decade, but then life swung a wicked left hook and I found myself barely getting by as we dealt with COVID, my mother, Koy, and then Mark. If we go back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, we know that we cannot have or find purpose if we are just struggling to survive. I am still somewhere in the middle of that scale, and while our Modern Musings podcast and blogs are fulfilling and help to give me self-worth, I still need to work on the middle steps before I can actualize my purpose.

• Family:This is another of those fully-loaded words. It pairs with whole, trust, and love. It makes my heart swell when I think of my children and all the people I love. It also brings me down to my darkest lows when I think of all the people who let me down, shrugged me off, and left me to be buried chin deep in soul-crushing fear, isolation, and desperation. I keep trying to build a close knit family where we can talk about our problems, come to one another for help, accept each other as we are, but also learn from each other – listening to advice and growing into better people. But the more time that passes, the more distance there is between us. Maybe they just have their own lives to lead, but despite my being okay, I am not good and I do still need love, understanding, help, and companionship from my family. I’d like to work on that.  I just don’t know how successful I will be if my family is not willing to cooperate.

• Travel: Oh, how I wish my life consisted of going off to explore new places and then coming back home to embrace the serenity of my own refuge. I keep trying, but travel creates such chaos before and after, and I haven’t quite figured out how to make it more systematic and structured. I want to travel. I want to explore the world, both near and far. But I don’t want it to disrupt life, house, and home in the process. I would also love to have someone (or many someones) to travel with, and I struggle with that. Is it the same problem as my family issue? I can’t even seem to get anyone to go when I offer to pay for it. So travel would be a fun word to have, right there with joy, open, and content. I don’t think I can fully embrace this word until I work through a lot of other things first. I can still travel, and I fully intend to, but I don’t want to go all in until I am comfortable and can trust being on my own if necessary.

• Go: If ever there was a word of action, go is it. It is the opposite of be, still, relax, and accept. It also runs a bit counter to content and flow. I’m not really sure why this word crept into my list, and although it fits smoothly with travel, it feels counter to what I need right now, which is to regroup, gain perspective, slow down, analyze, get in alignment, and flow with life. I can’t do shadow work or take the time to figure out what I really want in life if I am always on the go. So, go is a word for later. For a time when I know who I am. When I have clear goals and an adventure mindset. Not now.

• Do: Likewise, do is sometimes the twin of go. It requires action, movement, and purpose. It would be unwise to just go and do without a plan, a destination, or intention, and as I’ve already mentioned, I lack this at the moment. In fact, I feel like that is what I have been doing for the past two years (or more) – just moving on auto-pilot, going here and there, reacting to whatever crisis is at hand. Putting out fires, rebounding from letdowns and catastrophes, and wading through the chaos that eternally abounds. If I am going to do, I want to do so with purpose – with intent. This will not be possible until I can get out from under the madness and mayhem that has been suffocating me for years.

• Be: That brings me to be. In all my complaints about doing and going without purpose and wanting to find acceptance and contentment, you might think my word should be be. That, perhaps, in the stillness of not doing and going, I could find my purpose and perspective, or that being open and saying yes to what is would be exactly what I need. But it is not so. I could have no peace or rest while the chaos still surrounds me. There is so much yet to be done, and I don’t think I can move on physically or emotionally until I address it.

• Safe: The second level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is safety. I have mentioned previously that I have struggled with feeling safe most of my life. I am constantly in a state of waiting for the other shoe to drop. For someone who has been traumatized by abuse and neglect, the fear of what might come next is very real, and it leaves you in a state of chronic stress. When there is abundance, you fear losing it. Happiness is always tempered by worry. There is no trust in anyone or anything because everyone and everything you have ever trusted in has hurt you – often intentionally. You feel powerless. People think I am strong. They tell me so. But I am not. My strength is all for show – a display to ward off predators. I am trying to grow towards strength and safety, but for now, I think there may be other ways to get there.

• Start: I recently changed my daily affirmation to “Start. Focus. Finish.” It has been a great affirmation for me because, often, what holds me back is just starting something. I am so overwhelmed by everything that needs to get done that I become paralyzed by the indecision of where to start. I’ve been trying to remind myself that the best way to start is to just start. As writers have creative blocks and artists stare at a blank canvas, so too do I struggle with making the first move. But the advice to all is the same – just do it. Write a word, even if it’s wrong – you can always come back and edit. Make a mark on the canvas – even if you eventually cover it up. Likewise, I must force myself to just get up and do one thing – even if I sit back down again, at least I have started. So yes, start is a good word and I have so many projects I want to tackle, and all it really takes is for me to take that first step – to just start.

• Finish: Starting projects is always exciting, but the most satisfying thing to do is to finish them. I’ve long since lost count of the unfinished projects piled up in my craft room and garage and overflowing into other areas of my house. I once started a list to catalog them much as Christen described in one of our podcast episodes. But even that was daunting. I look at these projects and I think to myself, “How wonderful it would be if this were done.” My task or creation would be complete and I could enjoy it. It would free up space and eliminate clutter. It would give me a sense of accomplishment – a win – to keep me motivated and to help me feel confident about myself. There are so many reasons to finish these projects and to choose finish as my word would be a constant reminder and motivator to keep at it.

This is why I believe that “Finish” is the perfect word for me in 2026. I do not need to start new things (although I probably will). What I need is the discipline to finish the things that I start – whatever that may be. I am hoping that following through to the finish will give me self-confidence to tackle some of the bigger issues in my life and move on to the place where I can feel safe and trust others, so I can feel whole and content, and I can love others well. That will give me the courage to say “yes”, to feeling open and creative, and see the world with a different perspective. That will bring joy, acceptance, and flow, and I will be able to find my purpose, travel, go, and do without being a burden to my family.

UPDATE January 14, 2026: Shortly after I published this article naming my OLW as "finish," I began my class with Ali Edwards and decided that "finish" wasn't quite it. Within minutes of starting the first video, I realized that the word I really wanted was "complete," as it embodies the qualities of the verb "finish," and also the adjective "enough." I realized that I not only wanted to complete past projects, but I also want to feel complete. So, if you hear me refer to my word throughout the year, that is why it will now be "complete" and not "finish."

•Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs states that you must meet the following needs in this order: physical, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization. I always seem to be stuck in the first two or three levels.

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1 "Maslow's hierarchy of needs," Wikipedia, last modified December 16,  2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

2 Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 295