2025 – A Year of Adventure, Celebration, Loss, and Gratitude

As I look back on 2025, I’m amazed at how much life we packed into a single year. It was a year filled with travel, milestones, family, friends, unexpected challenges, and more than a few emotional highs and lows. There were birthdays worth celebrating, countries to explore, new homes to settle into, and difficult moments that reminded us just how precious life really is.

Looking Back on 2025

When I think about 2025, what stands out isn’t just the miles traveled or the number of countries we visited. It is the people.

A family who traveled halfway around the world to celebrate a birthday.

Friends who opened their homes to us.

Neighbors who became lifelong companions.

Scientists, cyclists, musicians, and fellow travelers who enriched our lives in countless ways.

The year also reminded me that life is fragile. We lost both of our beloved dogs. I faced prostate cancer and six weeks of radiation treatments. Yet those difficult moments were balanced by extraordinary joy—celebrating milestone birthdays, living in Europe for three and a half months, riding hundreds of miles through the Netherlands, discovering new places, and sharing every adventure with Esther.

If 2025 taught me anything, it is this: there is no perfect time to travel, celebrate, gather with friends, or tell people you love them. Life moves quickly, plans change unexpectedly, and tomorrow is never guaranteed.

The best approach is simply to keep saying yes—to new adventures, to old friends, to family gatherings, and to whatever wonderful surprises the next year might bring.