Some years flow seamlessly into others, leaving little trace in our memories beyond the every day things and personal milestones, others leave deep marks on the map of our lives. 2025 was the indelible kind written with fire, anxiety and strife. What will 2026 bring? Whatever it is, we’ll find out together! Here’s hoping 2026 brings blessings and joy. Happy New Year! Cover design by Urs Baur
“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been…”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910.
A new year. A new beginning. Twelve months of blank pages that have not yet been written on, and even if the ink of the old year shows through in some places, we can reflect on it from an increasing distance. We can write over it, transform it into something different, something better.
2025 was arguably one of the most difficult in recent history for many. It began with catastrophic fires, followed here in Topanga by floods, mud, and endless road closures, as crews raced to clear debris, dig out from tons of mud, and restore infrastructure. It is ending with a week of flash flood warnings and a forecast for heavy rain. The long, exhausting journey towards reconstruction that continues to complicate life for everyone impacted by the disaster is being played out against the ominous background of political upheaval and civil unrest, fear, and anxiety. And yet, we’ve all the way to the end of 2025. It feels like a significant accomplishment.
This issue of Topanga New Times offers a backward glance at the year that was, including two features on the Palisades Fire. Revisiting that time is hard but it is also significant. The goal isn’t to trigger PTSD, but rather to help put the events into perspective. The Palisades Fire has impacted all of our lives. It has changed the landscape permanently. Its impact will be felt for many years.
We’re also showcasing Jimmy P. Morgan’s Books & Such columns on Mark Twain; Claire Fordham’s thoughts on beauty and artifice; and Olivia Pool’s powerful reflection on resilience. These are thoughtful, intelligent, funny, heartfelt commentaries on life and we hope that you will enjoy revisiting.
Our contributors and their work remind us that there were good things this year, that life continued through the ashes, dust, and chaos. Neighbors came together to help neighbors during the fire and in the difficult months following it, bringing supplies in, checking on elderly neighbors, helping school families cope with the insurmountable problem of road closures.
Displaced Palisades High School students found refuge at the historic, but long empty, Sears building in Santa Monica while their school is being rebuilt and repaired. Many much-loved Topanga businesses have managed to survive the lengthy road closures with grit and determination. The curtain went up on a successful season at the Theatricum Botanicum, despite all the odds. Topanga endured and shone all the brighter through the adversity.
Much of the open space damaged in the Palisades Fire is open again, and new acquisitions are in the works for 2026, despite budgetary constraints and major cuts to the National Park Service that oversees the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The Topanga bear—BB-14—survived the disastrous first chapters of the year and returned to the canyon with her three young cubs. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing completed a major milestone and is on track to open next year, and a new mountain lion was recently tagged near the bridge construction, becoming the 129th big cat in the NPS study.
There is even a madly optimistic senate bill in the works that would increase the size of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to finally incorporate parts of the Rim of the Valley. Its fate is questionable in the current political climate, but the midterm elections are less than a year away, and a lot can change surprisingly fast in Washington.
Hope was the one thing left in Pandora’s magic box. It’s worth hanging onto, no matter how rocky the road, precipitous the drop, or unexpected the outcome. The future, in the words of poet Rainer Maria Rilke, is full of things that have never been, let us all hope they will be good things.
We hope you, dear reader, have a safe and joyous new year, and that 2026 brings many blessings.
Stay safe, be well. Happy New Year!
