Happy New Year 2018!
This has been a good start to the year. 2017 wasn’t a great one. And I only mean that existentially.
Last year the best part of me shrank a little. The force and intensity of its fire inside dimmed a little. It went back to being a little self conscious. It started mirroring questions in others eyes. Wondered what it was celebrating. Wondered why it was smiling as much. Even scoffed at the how easily pleased it was. Wondered why when it turned its belly up, noone played. And it got determined to stop looking like it was trying.
I took off to the mountains for a week at the end of last year- I knew I needed it. 2017 was a full year, but felt like the soul disappeared by the early part of it and only made a couple of short visits after. A cabin/mobile home in the mountains around Mount Shasta. Cooked every meal, made & drank a ton of chai, got off the internet, read a TON, finally started writing a bit, and walked in the mountain air. Was just what the doc ordered. Even with that little, I saw the light emerge a bit. The fact is that I need the mountains, solo time away, and some project to keep me going. I need to see and be excited about the story as I’m living it out. And I didn’t have one any more. Worse still, every time someone mentioned the sabbatical I cringed a bit.
For this year, I’m going to invest in art a lot more, going to make sure I spend more time in the mountains, start tinkering with tech a bit more, start changing my relationship with work, keep curiosity alive, and write a lot more. And so far this month I’ve done that. The goal this year will be to focus on the process more than the outcome, and to find the next project that excites me. I know it’s a little late, but I wish everyone a fantastic 2018- more light and more fulfillment, whatever that means to you.














