2025 was a year full of significant events for me and my family, many of them firsts for us. It was a year of much doing.
In fact, sometimes it feels like life right now is filled with so much doing that I hardly have time to know myself--who God created me to be and what he wants me to focus on. Most hours of most days are filled with do-the-next-thing, whether that's work or church or family or scrolling to the next Facebook post. To be honest, I experience quite a bit of loneliness and disorientation in this season of my life. Despite all the doing, I find myself asking, "What am I supposed to be doing?"
In many ways, these challenges aren't new for me--"God, fulfill the purposes for which you created me!" was the cry of my youth--but the overlay of being in my early 50s gives a new poignancy to the familiar landscape. Parenting teenagers (truly fun but hard) and increasingly feeling the limits of my mental agility are only two of many factors.
It's the doldrums of mid-life, and I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. It seems most of us need to go through them one way or another, hopefully gaining a deeper faith as a result.
I want to acknowledge these challenges honestly here--for your sake as well as mine--but I don't want to dwell on them today. For the rest of this post I want to thankfully recite some of my main doings of 2025.
My first overnight hospital stay
Well, since infancy, I guess. One morning in January while driving my work truck I suddenly started getting tunnel vision. I nearly blacked out, but pulled to the side of the road safely, thank God, my heart pounding hard. Long story short, they did a whole battery of tests on my heart and said all was well. My best guess is that I simply had low blood sugar and was starting to faint. I now pay more attention to how I feel when I'm driving.
A working shower, a new roof, and more
Thanks to a generous forgivable loan from Habitat for Humanity, February brought major repairs to our house. A new roof was the most significant project, but the one we most enjoy is to finally have a useable, non-leaking shower in our master bathroom. The contractor who did the work wasn't a tile artist, so I eventually took over the project, finally finishing it this summer. (Thanks professor YouTube, and thanks Floor & Decor sales associate who dug up sales history info from the contractor so we could match grout colors!)
Paying off our house
In February we made our last payment on the house and in April we threw a big celebration. Read all about it here. What a blessing to have no more payments on "the house that God bought"!
A daughter heading toward music college
2025 was the year it became clear that our oldest, Priya, is firmly part of the cohort of Georgia's best high school cellists. It's a good cohort, with plenty of competition, but Priya placed 4th-chair in the All-State Orchestra in March (and higher in the orchestras where she regularly plays). For four weeks in June-July she thrived at MasterWorks Festival, an intensive Christian summer music camp held this year at Liberty University in Virginia. This fall both daughter and parents were nearly undone by the college application "process" (if only it were that clearly defined), but Priya has now passed pre-screening in some pretty prestigious music schools, with other "safety" schools lined up in the likely event she doesn't pass all the final auditions. (Visit Priya's website to learn more, watch videos, or support her musical education.)
Our first 20 years of marriage
On April 23, 2025, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I'm so thankful God has preserved our love these years! One day at a time, choosing the words and deeds of love, choosing to forgive and to enjoy each other. We both have things we don't like about the other, but then we both have things we don't like about ourselves. And we can't imaging doing life without each other. We are so blessed!
The Great Western Trip
In May-June we made a 30-day road trip to California and back. It was truly the trip of a lifetime for our family, since we'd never done even a one-week vacation before (except for trips to see Zonya's or my families). It nearly burned us out to plan the trip, and it sent our bank accounts on a steep nosedive this year (despite a very generous gift from relatives several years ago that kick-started our trip fund) and it was squeezed very tightly between other commitments of our daughters, but it was oh-so-worth-it! The family bonding was priceless and a rich store of memories continues to bless. One example: whenever I tire of the ugliness of life I can just recall specific scenes from places like Palo Duro Canyon... Joshua Tree... Channel Islands... Tuolomne Meadows... Yosemite Valley... Zion... Grand Canyon... and remember that right now, at this very instant, their God-given beauty still shines as a witness to our Creator!
A new van
Okay, it was our second van, but our first Honda Odyssey (2014) and our first van purchase since 2012. This August purchase gave another big dent to our savings, but we saw it coming; we knew 2025 was going to be a year of negative cash flow but positive life investments. So far we like our Odyssey less than the 2005 Sienna it replaced (thank you, "Vandal"!), but we feel better about it since I figured out how to remove the tint from the front side windows. Driving is so much safer when you can see!
Three teenagers doing new things
As of December, all of our daughters are teenagers! Ayla turned 13 and is rejoicing to have passed both older sisters in height. Shani began high school studies this fall (we continue to homeschool) and also began volunteering at the local animal shelter--spending time with dogs makes her happy. Priya is stretching her wings and created another first for us: on our way to Canada last month we overnighted with a family Zonya and I didn't know--the family of a friend Priya made at summer music camp. Increasingly we'll be known as the parents of our children, rather than them being known as the children of Dwight and Zonya. That's as it should be.
As I look ahead to 2026, I'm depending on our God, who is wise, strong, and good. A year ago my guiding Bible phrase was "as good as dead," a phrase used to describe Abraham, rich in faith and fruitful despite his age. Lately I've been sensing a desire to live without being controlled by fear. I've also been praying that God will give me the gift of a healthy mind--that I can think clearly to his glory. Here's how I expressed that desire recently on Facebook:
I want to have a sound mind even as my mental agility slowly decreases; I want to think rightly, in line with reality, growing in wisdom and love, thinking clearly about things that should be clear despite the things that aren't. I want my desires to be properly ordered, healthy because they are in line with God's promises. I do not want to be ruled by fear as I live this season of my life; I want to move forward productively in choices and relationships without being crippled by imperfections or uncertainties or potential horrors.
May God guide all your meditations and doings in 2026!
Love from our family to yours,
Dwight
