Belinda Beatty

My word for 2026 arrived unexpectedly. I was deeply immersed in music and movement in the middle of a paddock in rural New Zealand, in the moonlight. The sound system was so powerful that it was vibrating through the air, lapping against my body like waves onto the shore. The bodies around me were consumed by the music and sensations: the cool night air on hot skin, the coloured lights, a visual feast, exotic fabrics and strange silhouettes, the all-consuming soundwaves. Eyes closed, body...

Transition:  to make a change from one state, place, or condition to another. Momentum:  the quantity of motion of a moving body. I sit here, at some undefined point beyond mid, but not yet late, January, in a quagmire. Quagmire is a strong word. Yet the density of its syllables resonates with the stickiness and weight that can prevent forward momentum. I can see the shape of 2026 beginning to form ahead of me, and I lean towards it. It feels like a year where the effort and growth of 2025...

For years, I believed success came first and happiness followed.   That belief made sense in the environments I was operating in. In the cockpit of a military aircraft, precision mattered. Discipline mattered. Emotion felt like something to manage, suppress, or park until later. On stage as a performer, confidence was essential, but again, it felt like something you earned  once everything else was perfect.   What I discovered, through lived experience in both worlds, is that we had it...