It’s 2024! It’s no longer January! Let’s go!
Love
Sunshine on my Shoulders: It’s the time of year when it really is easy to forget that the sun exists. Instead, everything is grey and blergy and awful. Each moment of sunshine revitalizes me. I am a better person. I am (mostly) no longer convinced my friends hate me.
Write that Down: If you’ve read any of my work, you’ll know how much I hate journaling. My mantra used to be “What’s the point of writing if no one is going to read it?”. I need to process things verbally. Usually out loud. Especially if I’m venting or trying to manage complicated feelings. But with best friends who are busy with their own lives (and at one of them who is often the topic of angst and venting; love you mean it) I found that writing my thoughts down in a book gives some clarity. It’s like a snack between meals. I still need someone to voice my thoughts to, but it helps reduce my anxiety and reinforce my memory until that can happen. TLDR: the girlies were right and journaling is actually good for your mental health.
Catching up on the Classics: This is going to be where I lose some of my former English teacher street cred. Until this year I had never read the famed classic Brideshead Revisited. Don’t get me wrong, I’d read Waugh. Just never his most infamous work. That changed when I was ordered to remedy this grave flaw in my personality. Readers. Friends. Y’all. I was not prepared for how I’d feel about this book and these characters. I’m changed forever. Genuinely. Also thanks to the beauty of the internet, I can join a dormant fandom and find incredible memes and classic castings.
Loathe
This Slope is Treacherous: A couple of weeks ago during the darkness of winter weather; I slipped on a patch of black ice and collapsed not at all gracefully into the road. Helpfully, a car honked at me as if I was suddenly unaware that I was (as previously mentioned) in the road. Still grateful for your service, sir. Due to the fact that I am not as young as I once was I find myself limping even these two weeks later. Winter is a scam. Which leads me to…
Winter: I say it every year and all the time. It sucks. So much. My Yankee/midwestern ancestors may have passed their genetics down but they did not leave me with the emotional fortitude to be depressed and cold and wearing tights for three months. Think of me fondly between now and proper spring, friends. And send me your furs.
Haters: I’ve written about it before, but for the love of Saints Peter and Paul please just let people like things. I don’t care if it’s a girl watching her boyfriend play football or tiny cars going fast (still mad at you, Lewis) or braiding your hair while you sing Scandinavian folk songs. If it brings you joy, doesn’t bring you or anyone else to sin, and isn’t illegal: great! I can write all I want about things I loathe but that doesn’t mean you can’t love them. Anyway, we’re hurtling on a rock through the blackness of space so let people find joy when they can.
Glad you’re here. Stick around this year for more of this, more thoughts about all things, and mayhaps some previews of the book (!) I’m writing.
xoxo, dw