The New Year

Howdy, from the editor

Happy holidays, readers.

I spent this month slowing down, unwinding — being kind of lazy, to be honest. It’s been a wild year for this desert writer, and it was the first year since 2020 that I didn’t keep all of my New Year’s Resolutions.

In fact, I had a lot of projects and plan slip through the cracks. I guess that’s what happens when you try to juggle too many balls at the same time — you drop some of them.

One of those dropped balls was an intention to feature more interviews with locals in this newsletter. In fact, I wasn’t able to catch my breath long enough to schedule a single one. Well… no use feeling too bad about it, and no use throwing in the towel either. So here’s to 2026, a year of many interviews with local Cochise residents, builders, and magic makers.

Oh, and the Ground Party Papers will also have a new feature starting next week, to kick off the new year: Real estate listings.

Yup. Some of the best people I know out here make their living helping folks find their new dream homes, and I’m gonna do my part to help those dreams come true.

I’m excited!

I hope you’re feeling good about the upcoming year, too.

Here are some of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2026:

• Train in a martial art, probably jui-jitsu (it’s never too late!)

I’d like to feel a little healthier, but rote exercise always feels Sisyphean, doing the same thing over and over. But when I’m learning something new, I’m willing to push myself to the limit.

• Be more patient

Maybe the fact that I find exercise boring is a clue that I can be impatient. But there are more obvious clues. In fact, it’s so obvious that a good friend of mine told me this year, “You can be a pretty impatient guy.” I think he was right. On the one hand, that impatience helps me get a lot of stuff done because I don’t wait for ideal circumstances to arrive, I just start doing things and expect that I’ll figure it out as I go. But my impatience also leads me to be impatient with other people, and maybe sometimes that’s justified, but other times, not so much. So I’m going to make more time in my days to be in touch with the Eternal, the timeless, the unconditional love that doesn’t need things to be a certain way in order to have some inner peace.

• A media detox

I spend very little time, almost none, on social media these days. But boy did I put in a lot of time on YouTube. When I imagine the kinds of things I’d probably be doing with myself if I didn’t have that distraction, it seems like a much better way to live.

I like to share my resolutions because then I feel a little more accountable for them. If you want to share yours in the comments, feel free to!

Until January, y’all.

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And…

Thanks for reading!