{"id":46478,"date":"2026-01-30T10:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rachellerogers.com\/dev1\/?p=46478"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:36:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:36:56","slug":"2026-has-landed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachellerogers.com\/dev1\/2026-has-landed\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Has Landed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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30<\/h1>\n

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January 2026<\/h5>\n

A Changing World
Personal Challenge
Walk for Peace<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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2026 Has Landed<\/h1>

by Rachelle Rogers<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Or maybe a better metaphor is that 2026 has taken off, and it\u2019s a really bumpy ride. This month has been challenging without and within. At least for me.<\/p>\n

On the outside, there is the world falling apart \u2014 rampant promotion of fear, cruelty, separation, insanity, lies upon lies, and more, hopefully the last vestiges of false power gripping frantically to control an old scenario in a humanity that is envisioning something new. At this stage, it\u2019s impossible to know how long this can go on in what I call the 3D reality. As it continues, however, I believe we will begin to see amazing new things surfacing simultaneously in every arena.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Buddhist Monk's 2300 mile Walk For Peace<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In my inner world earlier this month, I took a dip, although brief, into an old mud puddle, allowing myself to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and defeated by personal events. I don\u2019t wallow in the past, but here\u2019s the short version of the story. Maybe some of you can relate.<\/p>\n

The day it started, I awoke already feeling challenged, and by breakfast, things had begun to take a further dip. This is what continued throughout the morning:<\/p>\n

\u2014 When I got up, I immediately felt a debilitating stiff neck from, if you can believe it, too much crochet. Needing another creative pursuit, I had resurrected my love of crochet and was attempting to make this beautiful 1920\u2019s Gatsby style cloche hat with a rose for myself. As I launched the project, I began to see everything I needed to relearn \u2013 or actually learn the right way for the first time \u2013 and the frustration kept me addicted to continuing without a break. I can become a little obsessed like that, like what I call writing frenzy<\/em> when I\u2019m still writing at 1:00 in the morning, and I\u2019d forgotten to eat or rest my eyes or pee. With crochet, my body had given me several warning messages while I was struggling with keeping my stitches even. I ignored them, and so I wound up in pain.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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20's Cloche With Rose<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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My patio furniture, but not my patio.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2014 I then ate breakfast, too much breakfast, and somehow didn\u2019t swallow correctly and started feeling like there was food that hadn\u2019t gone completely down into my stomach, but gotten stuck on the solar plexus level. I had experienced something like this before, but only for a minute or so, and then there would be a gurgle and the food or whatever it was would complete its downward journey. Anyway, this lasted a long time, causing pain when I tried to take a breath. I had to bend way over to fully breathe in. Eventually, when I calmed myself, it did go away.<\/p>\n

\u2014 After that I went out to the small patio area beside my apartment door and found that a cat had pee-ed all over the cushions on one of my beautiful wicker chairs. I know cat pee when I smell it. Cats are allowed where I live, but not outside without a leash. When I called the office to ask about it, I was told there indeed were stray cats that roamed inside the complex at times. Understand, I love cats, but I had never expected this kind of feline intrusion on my expensive outdoor furniture. I guess cats don\u2019t need the gate code to get in.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2014 I had one more thing on my to-do list that morning: to drive down to the mailboxes and pick up a few days of mail. I found nothing important, except\u2026the envelope marked Jury Duty! I could feel my body tense. And when I opened it, I found find there were no exemptions for almost anything or anyone at any age in Colorado. I have only lived in Colorado for a year, having moved from Asheville NC, where you can opt out of jury duty at 72. I'm now 79. This summons made me extremely anxious for many reasons that I will explain shortly.<\/p>\n

By now, I felt pretty stuck in the mud. I needed to figure a few things out. Not thinking clearly, I brought the pee-ed on cushions inside and tried to wash them down with old towels. The fabric, made for outdoors, was easy to clean on the surface, but then there was the smell of cat pee, which could never be removed from the inside foam. And why did I spend so much energy on cleaning cushions I would never actually sit my body down upon again.<\/p>\n

Thus began the quest to replace the chair cushions. I will not bore you with the details, which were ongoing for several weeks. Suffice it to say that the trail from Amazon to the seller of the patio furniture to the company in Hong Kong to the manufacturer in the US had me writing emails and making phone calls until this very morning when I received an email from Hong Kong that said they had (finally) \u201cexpedited the shipment,\u201d although they couldn\u2019t give me a tracking number.<\/p>\n

As far as the stiff neck that had spread across my shoulders, I attended to it as best I could, massaged it, applied heat, exercised gently, and took Advil. And when I started to crochet again, I listened carefully to my body when it clearly indicated it was time to step away for a while.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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This leaves the last challenge, why I needed to find a way of getting disqualified from jury duty here in Colorado. First of all, and maybe most of all, is that I don\u2019t drive on highways, or in the dark, haven\u2019t for decades. A good part of this is that my last cataract surgery in 2022 went mysteriously wrong, and to my surgeon\u2019s actual surprise, although he never took responsibility, I wound up with Aniseikonia, where my eyes do not work together. They see different sizes, at different distances, wavy concrete, and no right angles. I never know what I or anyone else actually looks like. Even with prism glasses and contacts that correct what they can, it\u2019s still challenging, and has produced a good deal of frustration over these last years.<\/p>\n

And why is this an issue? I live in an apartment complex that is primarily in Boulder County. However, where the end of my road meets the main thoroughfare is the sign for entering Weld County, an entirely different world. In Boulder County, the courthouse is less than a half hour away with no highways. In Weld County, the courthouse is over an hour away requiring a convoluted drive on various highways. I was scheduled to report after 3:00 pm, which in winter here means that I\u2019d have to drive home partly after sunset in the dark. And, I have no one who would be able to drive me. I would have to hire a car service in each direction at separate times. All of this was my first layer of anxiety.<\/p>\n

A second layer was that I really could get pretty anxious in an enclosed, feeling trapped situation with many people in a small room. Especially in what feels to me like an alien environment after living a rather secluded life for many years.<\/p>\n

Still another controversial layer was that when you see things from a much more expansive, multi-leveled vantage point, as I do, it\u2019s very difficult to pass judgment on anyone. And I will leave it at that. Some will understand this, some will not. It\u2019s all okay.<\/p>\n

I will end this part of my saga by saying that to my enormous relief, I was<\/em> able to get disqualified, although it isn't appropriate here to explain how.<\/p>\n

The level of anxiety I felt that morning, however, was beyond anything I\u2019d experienced in a long while. I\u2019m learning to stay rather calm these days. Practicing mindfulness, appreciation, compassion, breathing, meditation, heart coherence, inner sovereignty, and Self Love have for me opened up new ways to see life, and my part in it. There is always choice.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The Peace Monks<\/h4>\n

Speaking of choice and mindfulness, the monks on their Walk for Peace is a blessing every day. I can\u2019t watch or listen to them without tearing up in a good way, like what happens when you merge into the miraculous beauty of a peony, a sunset. The Big Heart the monks exhibit and so generously share reminds us to choose peace, compassion, loving-kindness in each moment, reminds us of the truth of who we are at the core of our being.<\/p>\n

I follow the monks mostly on Facebook, and to find their joy-filled videos of peace, I often have to scroll through the heart-wrenching postings about Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The dichotomy of emotion I feel leaves me at times dissolved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, and Aloka, the Peace Dog\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Yet there is peace also to be found in the massive outpouring of those in Minneapolis<\/span> who are standing up for what they feel from their heart of hearts that they must do. It is a most courageous undertaking of compassion, community, and sanity in a world that has gone mad. It\u2019s worth thinking about what those like Gandi, Martin Luther King, John Lewis carried in their hearts as they got into good trouble, necessary trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n

So here we are in the last days of the first month of a new year. And, to my understanding and experience, from the larger perspective, the beginning of a new era for humanity. If you\u2019re interested in my thoughts on this, see my last post: What If and The Evolution of Consciousness<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

My invocation to the world
as John Lennon sang out so many years ago
\u2026give peace a chance<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Minneapolis<\/span> Protest\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Gathering with the monks on the Walk For Peace<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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← <\/span>What If and The Evolution of Consciousness<\/span><\/a><\/span>Life As Practice<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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