It's the final episode of the 2025 season, and I want to leave you with something meaningful to carry into your holiday break. This is a time for reflection—for noticing what's working, what's not, and what you want more of in the year ahead.

In this episode, I'm sharing some personal thoughts as I prepare to step away for my annual December sabbatical. I'm thinking deeply about alignment, presence, and what it means to move forward with clarity and purpose.

If you've been feeling the tension between what you have to do and what you're called to do… this episode is for you.

Key highlights:

• Why I'm shifting directions in 2026 to focus on deeper connections with educators (and serving more than just folks in K-12)
• How my personal life has come into greater alignment after moving and establishing new daily practices
• My launch of teacher retreats after years of dreaming and planning (you're invited!)
• An introduction to Due Season Press, my new website showcasing retreats, retreat/event planning services, editing and publishing support for authors, and more
• Opportunities for schools and districts to host custom retreat experiences
• Reflective questions to help you find your own alignment and mission heading into 2026

Get the shareable article/transcript for this episode here.

This episode is brought to you by MiaTiagoBooks.com.

P.S. If you'll miss having new episodes to listen to from now until January, here's a way to work back through the archives without having to scroll endlessly through episode titles. I have a set of recommended Truth for Teachers playlists you can access. They're a careful curation of the episodes I'm most proud of—and that I think will help you most—from my ten years of podcasting.

I've organized the playlists around four topics:

• The Encouragement Playlist, if you need a boost of inspiration and motivation
• The Productivity Playlist, if you want practical strategies for time management and getting things done
• The Student Engagement Playlist, if you want tools for building relationships with students and enhancing your lessons
• The Greatest Hits Playlist, which covers a wide variety of topics that have been really popular over the years but aren't necessarily connected to any larger theme. The Greatest Hits playlist offers a really nice variety of episodes.

If you're a longtime listener and accessed one of these playlists a while back, know that I updated them this month so they include newer episodes, too.

Go to TruthforTeachers.com/playlists and enter your email address to receive the playlist you want. I'll send you a PDF with a description of each episode, a link to its blog post/transcript, and a link to the MP3 file for listening. It also shares some special bonuses and other related resources I think you might like.