Unencumbered: I Move Freely

2025 was heavy in a way I didn’t see coming. There was joy, pain, and a fair amount of confusion, and at times I felt unmoored from my own life.

A close friend suggested I pick a word to guide how I wanted to move into 2026. I’d never done it before, but something about doing it felt right. It felt simple in a way I needed. A way to stay grounded as things continued to shift.

Looking back, 2025 made one thing clear—I needed to move on from parts of the past, both personally and professionally. I needed to become unencumbered.

What I’m starting to understand is that there’s a kind of lightness that comes with letting go of what you thought you had to carry. Not all at once, and not because of one big decision, but gradually, over time. You begin to notice things feel a little easier, a little less heavy, even if nothing obvious has changed on the surface.

For a long time, my life was full in the best ways—responsibility, leadership, decisions that mattered. I carried a lot because it mattered to me, and because it was mine to carry. And truthfully, I would do that again without hesitation.

But what I didn’t fully appreciate then was how much of the weight came not just from responsibility, but from identity, from being known in a certain way, from the role you step into over time, to how hard it can be to separate yourself from it.

When that shifts, you start to feel the difference. The pain softens. Clarity starts to fill the space. Laughter comes a little easier, maybe even a little deeper. The days feel longer in a way that has nothing to do with time and everything to do with how present you are in them.

These days, my life looks different. There’s more space in my time, fewer things tying me to one place, and more choice in how I move through my days. And with that, I’ve started to notice something I didn’t expect. I move differently. Not rushed, not pulled in multiple directions, not anchored to what something is supposed to be—just moving forward in a way that feels a little more natural.

There’s a quiet freedom in that. Not the kind that comes from walking away from something, but from no longer needing to hold onto it in the same way.

Unencumbered doesn’t mean without purpose. If anything, it feels more intentional. It just means the weight is different now. What I built still matters. It’s still part of me. I’m just not carrying it the same way.

And somewhere in that shift, I’m starting to find a different kind of ease.

Iceland 2021 - COVID Chaos