One of my favorite ways to start the year is by visiting Portland’s Japanese Garden. This year I was a couple of days late, but on the soft gray morning of January 3, I went to the garden with a friend and paused to appreciate the kadomatsu, or “gate pines,” decorations placed at the entrance in honor of the new year. They represent purification after the year just past and preparation for the time ahead. This year more than ever, I hope to be graced by their beneficent influence, especially the preparation part.

Like many, I feel daunted and dispirited by events on the national and world stage, and most of all by the looming, accelerating climate crisis that we have brought to our world and the life that shares it with us. Despair and fatalism are constant temptations. My goal for 2025 is to turn my energies to tools and perspectives that may help me dismiss those temptations and cope with the ever-present anger, anxiety, grief, and dread I feel when I open myself up to the world and the news of what is happening in it. To do what I can to feel good about life in this place and time, and to do less of what makes me feel bad. Sounds simple, right? But I am by nature pessimistic and cynical, so it’s an uphill struggle.

We’ll see how it goes.