2026 A to Z Challenge Blog: Day 1

As someone once said, today is the first day of the rest of your life. In this case, it’s the first day of April, a Wednesday, and the first day of the 2026 A to Z Blogging Challenge. This year, my theme is essentially journaling with an emphasis on memes that shape our lives. Since some of my neighbors still have their Christmas lights up–and turn then on each night–I wondered how many days were left until they would be valid again. The answer is 269! That means there are plenty of spring and summer days ahead. For a second, I wondered!!!

Today’s letter is A. Being the first letter of the alphabet is an awesome responsibility. Every letter that comes after has to live up to the standards it sets. In Canada, it’s not only a letter but a sound associated with everyone who lives here, although truthfully people tend to spell it eh, instead of a which is the way it sounds. Instead of pardon me? when we don’t hear something properly, we’ll say eh? and it’ll sound just like a. We do it so often, that Canadian, eh? seems to just go together naturally. So, when you’re the first letter of the alphabet, and you give your pronunciation to a national identity, the other letters need to step it up. Looking forward to how they’ll do that this year.

A may also stand for awareness. These days, more than ever, we have to be aware of everything–society, our situation, our location, our friends, our family, our enemies, our physical and mental health, even our diet. You name it, we have to be aware of it. Does it mean that we have to be afraid of everything and everyone? No, not at all, but it does mean that we shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand, like people believe ostriches do, and pretend that everything is fine. The world is a mess. Our food supply is often contaminated. Our climate is suffering because of our inaction to prevent cut back on polution and greenhouse gases. But there are good things out there, too. The key is to finding them–the friends who are always there for you, the family that accepts you for who and what you are, the prospect of a nice, warm, sunny spring and summer after a long, cold, snowy winter.

Self-awareness is the most important awareness and should be at the top of everyone’s list. Self-awareness is the ability to clearly and objectively understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses, because only then do all the things around us make sense. How we react to the various elements in our world differs from one person to the next, from one moment to the next. Some days, everything will seem to overwhelm us, but the next day, things will be fine. In my case, the world news directly affects my behavior and the way I react to everything around me, especially my ability to write. A bad news day will affect my sleep and that will affect my attitude and my productivity. So, how do I cope? I search for the grains of good news. They aren’t always easy to find, but if I look hard enough, I will. Awareness and attitude go together and a positive attitude makes all the difference.

A also stands for advice. One of the purposes served by memes is to hand out information to make your life better, and frequently, they use popular figures to help them do so. Today’s advice comes from Ed Sheeran. It’s a reminder that every single day is a fresh start. There’s very little that you can do to make life better if you spend your time wallowing in the mistakes of the past. We’ve all made then, and we’ll continue to do so because as part of the adage says, to err is human. So, forget pefection. Aim for being the best you can be. Let go of the expectations of others, and breathe. Today really is the first day of the rest of your life. Enjoy!

And of course, it only seems right to have Ed perform for us today. Have a great day!