It's time to kiss the frog

If you're anything like me, you will have listened to at least one forecast about 2026 so far. Whether it was an energetic update, a business forecast, doomscrolling or the weather, we're all curious about what this new year will bring. Here's my personal prediction for 2026, and I'm telling you and reminding myself at the same time. It's time to kiss the frog.

You already know the story...

Sometimes it is called "The Golden Ball"and sometimes "The Frog Prince." In the story a spoiled princess is playing with her golden ball in the garden, when it suddenly drops into a well. As she dejectedly cries over losing it, a frog offers to retrieve it for her -- on one condition. She must take him with her into the castle.

He dines with her at the table. He sleeps on her pillow. Finally he tells her she must kiss him.

Boy, she doesn't want to!

Of course, when she does, he turns into a handsome prince (and happily ever after, right?). But I want to address the story before the grand finale, because it has some interesting points to make about our current moment.

The princess is playing with her golden ball in the garden. On one hand this seems to be a picture of the innocence of childhood, with all the time in the world to play and a beautiful, safe garden to play in. But this is a spoiled princess, used to comfort, used to having things her own way, and more than that, used to having all the riches.

This is the very picture of privilege personified.

And what of the ball? It could be a stand-in for the earth and all her resources. As a species, we are certainly continuing to play with her without regard for the consequences. Some of us even toss things, people, situations, circumstances, and resources around to get our own way without regard to the consequences for others and call it "collateral damage."

But is it the princess' fault? I've found myself thinking recently that children come with so many accessories these days. They seem to have an overwhelm of equipment, toys, devices, distraction. Anxiety is rising in younger and younger children. Studies in Finland have shown that newborns are much more well adjusted when they are put to sleep in the gift every Finnish child receives from the government at birth -- a cardboard box.

Sometimes, more isn't better. Sometimes simple teaches us to make the most of what we have. It strengthens our imagination and our determination. Success doesn't come purely from luck. It comes from the gumption to keep showing up no matter what. That takes belief in yourself and the support of others. I'm wondering now whether the princess was, in fact, deeply lonely and therefore inadequately resourced.

Suddenly, the ball drops out of sight. It falls into the well. Life is like that. Just when you think you have everything perfect, life throws the curve ball -- in this story, literally.

I don't know about you, but I found the ball dropped out of my hands during COVID. It simply disappeared down the well. I didn't know what to make of my life, and I think we are all still suffering the consequences we don't want to look at from this massive group experience.

We desperately want everything to go back to normal. We want our ball back, just the way it was. Many of us turn to control to retrieve a sense of control over our lives. The problem lies in when we try to control the whole world to make ourselves feel safe.

Here comes the frog. In order to get our attention, Life usually presents us with something totally unexpected. And most of us reject it outright. NO! I'm not having that!!

We don't find any curiosity for the frog that turns up. We don't even marvel that it is a talking frog. We have lost our sense of wonder.

First the frog demands to sit with us at dinner. We don't want to feed this intruder, we don't even want to acknowledge it. When the frog asks to sleep on our pillow, we have to be reminded by the King that we need to honour our promises. There must be an energetic exchange for services rendered.

Perhaps we are most deeply afraid what the frog will whisper in our ear.

I know for me starting in 2021, there was a very quiet inner voice that began to suggest I should stop for a moment. That I should turn away from the stimulation of the outside world and listen deeply to my own inner spirit. But I was so full of survival angst that I couldn't. I just kept going, treading water madly.

I've come to the end of being able to tread water and feel that it's normal. What about you?

Now you want me to kiss you? Yep. This is the final step. It is to embrace that strange promise that turned up unexpectedly and asked for your full attention. It is time to let go the safety of the shore and enter the river and time to let of of the identity you knew before, even if you don't know what comes next. It is time to follow the call of your deepest spirit to become the one you most want to be, not some other version someone else -- or even you --- expected of you.

It is time to take the leap and say YES! to the adventure. The world needs the best of who you are. Now.

Because the change out there won't stop. Security is drifting away and the most solid ground is the inner ground. It's time to trust yourself and keep building the trust in yourself. I'm at your back.

I'm right there with you. It's time to get this show on the road. It's time to kiss the frog already!