Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.
Across the United States, the arrival of a new year brings with it a mix of emotions that rarely fit into a single narrative. “It’s a moment filled with fresh resolutions and public optimism, but also a quieter reckoning with what the past year carried,” Elanthé Phoenix (Scotia Baker) says. “For some, it’s energizing. For others, it highlights what hasn’t changed, what was lost, or what still feels unresolved.”
She acknowledges all of these realities at once, and in her view, the new year becomes most meaningful when people recognize that intention remains within their control. “Hope, gratitude, and remembrance don’t cost money,” she says. “They are choices, even when life feels heavy.”
Her reflections come as one year closes and another begins, a moment that coincides with growing attention around her broader body of work, particularly as she continues preparing the GIFT framework for its eventual public release. GIFT, short for General Information Flow Tensor, is the framework Phoenix has been developing to help people examine how information, intention, and moral choice intersect. She explains it as a mathematical structure that invites reflection rather than replacing it, encouraging individuals to look at how their decisions align with what they believe to be right.
But for Phoenix, the foundation of everything she teaches begins long before any framework is introduced. She believes the new year offers a universal entry point into the kind of introspection that allows people to reclaim a sense of moral clarity. “Even without GIFT, we can still choose positive intent. We can still seek moral outcomes. We can still give what we can and show up for others,” Phoenix says.
The message reflects themes she has emphasized for years: that self-awareness strengthens moral decision-making, and that affirmations help people ground themselves in what they already know to be true. She often explains the first step of any meaningful change as a moment in front of a mirror, an invitation to acknowledge both strengths and imperfections. At the start of a new year, she sees this practice as especially relevant because expectations often rise alongside the pressure to “start over.” “Many people want the new year to feel transformative,” she says. “Sometimes that happens naturally, but for many, it doesn’t. The question becomes: what intention do we bring into the year ahead?”
Her approach centers on moral agency, a belief that choice remains present even when circumstances are difficult. She sees free will not as an abstract concept but as a practical daily reality. In moments of chaos or pressure, she suggests that people still have the ability to act with restraint, patience, or generosity. She has long argued that small behavioral shifts accumulate, shaping both individual well-being and collective environments. “Even small resistances to corruption, to wrong behavior, matter greatly,” she explains. “Those decisions build who we are.”
Phoenix speaks frequently about remembrance, not as nostalgia but as accountability. She views the new year as a natural moment for reckoning, a time to acknowledge where people have missed the mark and to reconnect with what genuinely matters. It is, she says, a period when many take stock of losses, broken promises, or defining moments from the year behind them. In her view, remembrance becomes a tool for clarity, not regret. “We do not control everything that happens to us, but we can decide who we are in response,” she notes.
These ideas tie naturally into the philosophical foundation that underpins the developing GIFT framework, though Phoenix emphasizes that people make these choices at every turning point, not only once a year. Still, for many, the new year marks a uniquely powerful pause, an opportunity to reconsider how they engage with the world and with others. The principles align: the belief that reflection guides action, that moral outcomes depend on informed choice, and that individuals possess more agency than they often recognize.
As many in the US and around the world step into a new year marked by both hope and uncertainty, Phoenix hopes people will remember that kindness, honesty, and patience remain accessible regardless of circumstance. She notes that hardship is real and that many households face complicated emotions this time of year. Yet she continues to return to the idea that meaningful change begins with intention, an internal shift that doesn’t depend on money, status, or certainty. “What we choose to remember, what we choose to honor, and how we choose to show up, these are things still within our power,” she says.
For Phoenix, hope is not an escape from reality but a posture toward it. Gratitude is not denial but recognition. And remembrance is not dwelling on what was lost but understanding what still guides us forward. She says, “As a new year begins, we always have the ability to choose positive intent, and that choice matters.”
