2026 Making it Real

It’s easy to be a spectator, to watch things happen from afar. We cheer, we boo, we criticize, analyze; we watch and listen with judgmental eyes and ears. Spectators have nothing to lose; there’s no personal stake in it.

But when you’re all in, down in the trenches sweating in an on your knee’s moment, using every last shred of strength to overcome, just trying to keep your head above water so you can take your next breath, you know you’re in the game. You’re walking that tightrope without a net while still keeping your eye on the prize with no guarantee, but keep moving forward anyway. You stick your neck out for your kids, your family, friends, your neighbors; for a cause you believe in.

President Theordore Roosevelt once said “…It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, …”  

As we turn the page to yet another new year, a clean slate to begin again, where will 2026 find you? In the stands or down on the field?  The choice is all your own.

-Man in the Arena Speech, President Theodore Roosevelt 1910