This is a first draft. I’ve been away for too long - the “break” wasn’t a planned one. 2024 became so much about managing, keeping my head above the water. We had plans, checklists, calendars, work-back timelines. So much coordination, logistics, parenting (both of children and worse, adults). I simply had no time in between just checkboxes. I love a good list and the inherent joy that comes from a job-well-done.
The gap last year - and the thing that I missed the most - was messy creation. I stopped making things. I didn’t spend time writing anything but work (and even that was minimal). I didn’t make music. I mostly held crayons to draw all manner of rudimentary vehicle (how does one draw a motorcycle anyway?). I felt mostly like I was ingesting and spitting outputs.
Sometimes the season we’re in necessitates that we focus our energies on particular things. I have always been proud of my ability to manage a lot of things and people, but it doesn’t fill my bucket in the same way as cringey drawings and bad poetry did when I was younger. Which is why, this year, my Word is Create.
I’m taking my cue from nature - she creates everything every year in the spring. She’s intentional about it. She doesn’t worry about perfection or opinion. She simply does her thing and lets us enjoy the fruits (literal and metaphorical). No judgment.
I’m not expecting perfection (we’re working on that), but I want more presence. I might be here more often this year. Or I might not. In between all of the spreadsheets and the calendaring, there needs to be room to create. So much of it is just showing up and seeing what shows up with you. So, 2025 and I will show up together.