We have survived another year . . . “thrived another year,” I should say!

Revisiting last year’s resolutions: mine were to boost sales by 15%, visit a new restaurant each month, hike a new trail each month, make my sons watch a classic movie with the family once a month, burn 8 pounds of body fat, see a 35% increase in joy, tripling of gratitude and peace up six units.

Close enough. Pressing on.

As you recall, part of our 2025 cooking plans included butter chicken. That was a smashing success.

Bracken Jr.’s butter chicken and naan have been straight-up fire this past year. That’s become a big part of our family’s life. Fantastic. I have to give a shout-out to Sarah’s Thanksgiving gooey pumpkin cheesecake squares as well, and all of her fine soups.

Next on Junior’s chef list: a biryani.

My cooking list includes a massaman curry; I have to try the classic Elvis toasted peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich sometime when I need a rich calorie load, a Jamaican-style yellow curry, and perhaps we’ll even tackle some croissant-making sometime.

Kitchen goals.

Otherwise in 2025 we stayed pretty active, kept the Pulse pulsing along, caught some catfish, hiked some beautiful places, played some mini golf, worked hard and laughed a lot.

I have been blessed to have tried some delicious cheeses—asiago, fontina, gruyere, Havarti and many others. There are so many more out there, and I resolve that my quest to try the fine cheeses of the world shall lead me to blue stilton, camembert, brunost, emmental and roquefort.

In 2026, I’ll continue pushing that joyfulness up, lock in on those same goals from 2025, explore some new places, continue working on burning a few pounds while keeping strength up, keep loading up on fruits and vegetables and natural things, and mainly spend some quality time with each member of my family, and every group combination therein.

You never know when it’s your last chance to see someone, to go somewhere, to experience something. Tell your loved ones what you want to say to them.

Let’s make the most of the time and health that we have. Enjoy it. Nothing’s guaranteed to happen again.

Memorable Pulse content from last year included coverage of Ed the Zebra, the Smolicious food truck and Smo’s health journey, Charlie Kirk, local landfill drama, a booming Murfreesboro business scene and so much more.

Thanks to all of the loyal supporters who make it happen.

What do you want to know about? What would you like to see in the Pulse this year? Stay in touch, reach me at bracken@boropulse.com, and let me know what you like about our community publication and what you’d like to see more of.

Peace!