Inside the Fire: What This Last Year Has Required of Us
- Verla Wade
- Apr 30
- 5 min read
Who We Were Taught To Be, Who We Came Here To Become, And What Emerges When Nothing False Remains
By Verla Wade, Strategic Guide for Real-World Life Decisions
Where Clear Thinking Creates Consequential Leverage
Not every year changes your direction. Some years change you.
The Snake Year asked us to shed. The Fire Horse Year is asking us to burn clean and become. This piece is for anyone who has walked through loss, dissolution, and reinvention in the past two years — and is beginning to recognize that what remains is truer than what was released.
This Month Is My New Year
April is the month that holds my birthday, and this piece is a reflection on the past year.
My New Year. Known to many as the true New Year.Taurus, rising into its season. The real beginning for me.
This year has required me to move past the ceilings I created and fully inhabit this current cycle of reality.
If you've felt this year pressing on you in ways you cannot yet name, you are not alone. This year is asking something of all of us. Not just me.
What it is calling for and what it has been doing are worth understanding. Especially now.
2026 Didn’t Come to Play
Those who know me know I have not been here playing around. And the same is true about this year.
Many people are in the middle of this year's demands and feeling the pressure without yet understanding its source. Some are resisting it entirely, which has proven ineffective, because resistance is not an effective negotiator.
The Fire Horse does not ask permission. You either move with it, or it moves through you and your life.
2026 did not come to play. It came to:
Burn and transform what was shed in 2025
Reveal who we are and where our lives no longer reflect our values and standards
Break down what is misaligned and move us toward mature self-respect and self-love
None of us were exempt from this. I have been in it with you.
This has been the curriculum. For all of us. And it started in 2025, with the Year of the Snake.
What the Snake Year Asked of Us
In 2025 we were asked to shed what no longer served in preparation for the coming fire.
To meet every shadow. Not with fear. With compassion, presence, truth, and clarity.
I was not an exception to the Snake’s work nor the Fire Horse’s request.
The ones who resisted the Snake’s invitation to shed are arriving at this year carrying what was meant to be released. The fire will find it.
Like many of you in the past year, I have walked through loss, death, illness, perceived failures, anger, sadness, grief, confusion, and loneliness.
I have observed outgrown versions of myself falling away. Everything that could not come with me has been or is being let go of. As I watch, some things are still dissolving.
And then the Fire Horse arrived.
Somewhere in what remains, I am finding even truer aspects of who I am. Not the version I was taught to be, or even who I groomed myself to be.
The one encoded in my DNA by the agreement I have with our Creator. The one written in my earliest dreams and aspirations.
What the Fire Horse Is Doing
This year shifted my trajectory.
Relationships changed. Foundations reshaped. My body rebelled with a conviction that suggested it had been preparing for this for a while.
I can now see from where I stand today that everything has been revealing its truest nature. I was pushed beyond living my purpose into reinventing myself at the next level.
This is not only my story.
If you have felt your own trajectory shift this year, you are not imagining it. The Fire Horse moves all of us, shifting paths and trajectories across the board.
The degree of difficulty is often directly proportional to the degree of resistance. The more you hold on to what was meant to be released, the more unrelenting the pressure becomes.
Life, however, in its grace, had more to offer.
What Beauty Showed Up to Do
And through all of this, life gave me Beauty.
None of it announced itself. It arrived and waited for me to notice.
In the unexpected smiles returned to me.
In the small kindnesses offered by strangers.
In the people who showed up in ways I did not anticipate, while others I thought were closer fell away.
Love returning. Relationships renewing. Established relationships deepening.
Physical fitness recalibrating and restoring.
Legs walking dependably again.
Some negotiations remain ongoing. The heels have not yet conceded.
Inspiration has been a constant companion. Returning to writing. Publishing. Adapting to new technologies. Reinventing myself.
A joy-filled life I know well is returning. Continually discovered and appreciated in new ways and new places.
And I do not think I am alone in this.
The Fire Horse Year has a way of revealing what is real, including what is uniquely joyful for each of us.
The Ground Beneath Your Feet
The ground I now stand on is new earth. Rich for exploration. Ready for cultivation.
A new garden to be tended, nourished, and walked through with intention. The threshold of my next reinvention.
This is what becomes available when resistance is no longer automatic.
New earth. Not despite the fire. Because of it.
The fire did not create the misalignment. It revealed what was still being carried.
So the question worth sitting with: What are you still carrying that you were asked to release?
This section is short. The year is still unfolding. The ground is prepared and planted. What grows here has not yet been written.
If you are standing on unfamiliar ground, you may be exactly where you are meant to be. The story is not finished.
New earth. New garden. Unwritten and ready to flourish.
Refined by Fire: The Wrap
Awake. Aligned.
Moving toward my North Node. My North Star.
Becoming more fully who I came here to be.
Refined by fire.
Led by something greater. Grounded in what is true.
Life. Sustained in truth, faith, compassion, and love.
Thank you for being here. Until next time,
Optimizing words. Elevating wisdom. © AskVerla 2026
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About Verla
Verla Wade brings a disciplined ability to recognize patterns others overlook, developed through decades of corporate sales, marketing leadership, and advisory work. Her work focuses on what sits beneath the surface, the underlying dynamics that quietly shape decisions, timing, and outcomes across business and relationships.
Clients often come to her after they’ve analyzed a situation from every angle and still find that something isn’t resolving. This is where Verla works.
She identifies what’s actually driving the situation and translates it into clear, grounded decisions and practical action, often bringing resolution faster than expected. Her approach is confidential, direct, and precise. Verla is thoughtful in execution, compassionate without compromise, and willing to name what needs to be named.
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