December 31, 2025
Dear all:
I am sending penguin inspired greetings for the New Year from a place I was a few days ago, Isla Martillo, off the coast of Ushuaia, in Argentine Tierra del Fuego where I had been many years ago, a place that calls itself the end of the world, the beginning of everything.
On this island, there are two types of penguins, Gentoo penguins with orange beaks and Magellanic penguins which are black and white.
What are penguin inspired greetings exactly?
Well, they're adaptable as penguins are - their slick feathers allow them to swim fast, and deep and leap in and out from sea to land. Also, they stand upright in all kinds of weather, especially wind and when they cannot stand, they lie down or go underground. And when they are doing one thing - for example, molting - they cannot do another - for example, go in the water.
Hence, therefore ergo: with all my heart, I wish us well for the mystery and challenge of 2026. May we find ways to make ourselves at home wherever we are, in all kinds of weather, taking one step at a time.
The surprise of singing along
On the boat to see the penguins, I got to talking with a woman from Brasil. I said you know my last name - it's Portuguese and I told her about the Portuguese and India. I said for some reason I've been singing this one song from Bahia. I know the Spanish version of it which goes "yo no soy de aqúi" (I'm not from here). And she smiled and sang, "Marinheiro só" (I'm a sailor)
Which is how the common response to the song goes
Oh, I loved being on a boat to an island named after a hammer, to see penguins and finding along the way a surprising call and response to song.
These are a few of my favorite things from this year.
This WILD podcast
This Story from a Soft Belly in Little Fruits magazine
Bryan Stevenson, anything he says
A poetic rant, in Panorama: a journal of place: ‘magnetic locals’) + an ode to Sonder in Sevilla:
LOVE AND HOPE AND ALL THINGS WILD AND TRUE, dear friends, faraway and close.
Shebana
