Hello hello!
We’re a week into the new year—some may say it feels like a month has passed, some may say the time has flown by.
Wherever you stand, I give you this email as an offering to take a step back and a deep breath.
Mental discourse may wish to string together events into a strand to form a necklace. Once we have it, the instinct is to wear the necklace.
Why? Because it feels like you’ve earned it, you’ve held the grating sand that formed the pearl, why not enjoy the shimmer that may come when the light hits just so?
For many years I wore necklaces of the past, so heavy around my neck. They’d be just under my shirt collar and if the time came I would pull them out and show them to anyone I felt was getting too close, lest they see the shapes under my shirt.
It got tiresome.
Finally I was shown a mirror in the form of another person and noticed that no one could see the necklaces they wanted so badly to show.
After witnessing that reflection, I wanted to give myself a chance to live differently. I took a cue from my great grandmother and threw my necklaces overboard. I still know the feel of the peals in my hands, but their weight isn’t present at all times.
That being said, it is a new year and we can create space for new things to enter our sphere. I’ve had a fraught relationship with resolutions, but I still want to use words to give some shape to 2022.
Right now I’m in Idyllwild staying in a tiny cabin, next to the same creek I walked along exactly a year ago.
One of my goals for this trip is to make a list of things I’d like to learn in 2022.
I’m trying to keep it short and sweet. Achievable but still expansive. I’m hoping it provides a framework of thought that will guide me through the year.
I want to learn X, then I will take Y action to fulfill it.
If I want to lean X then I should say yes (or no) to this opportunity.
This is my current list right now, but I plan to add and refine in the coming days.
THINGS TO LEARN IN 2022:
what it’s like to be in a new place
curate more music for myself
how to feel stable financially
what makes my body feel best
find three philosophers to understand
If you’d like to join me, let me know what you’re planning to learn in 2022!
Bon voyage for now—
xx
James