Fun story about why you’re getting this on a Saturday.
As I logged into Buttondown to write this, I realized it’d been a year. A year ago, I wondered if this stasis would end and wrote to you about how we had two years of reduxes.
As I think over the past year, I’d call it a year of deepening. Recession deepened, pain deepened, our itchiness to reengage deepened. Deep can be good, but it can also feel endless. I’m so thrilled my friendships have gained a new depth this year. I’m so pained when I have to say I do not know when we’ll dig ourselves out of this, whatever this is.
In 2022, I didn’t write here, but I did write in RJI, for Sincerely, Leaders of Color and a little for myself. I did very little speaking, but ended accepting speaking gigs for some time after a thing happened that made me quit Twitter. In 2022, I worked through some of the biggest professional challenges of my career, but I am working hard to redefine my relationship to work. In 2022, I went to therapy nearly every week and finally figured out my version of mindfulness, discovering realms of my self I did not know existed, but my grief was not cured (my original reason for going back to therapy).
I was thinking of all these things as I redesigned my yearly goals booklet. I printed out all the test copies, and now have the one I’ll fill out this weekend (which is why you are randomly getting this on a Saturday when I tend to stick to mid-week sends. I’d love it if you do, too. Or maybe share the link. I’m not making money off it, but it is one of the best practices I’ve started doing in the past 10 years.
I don’t make resolutions, predictions or commitments each year like I once did. I tend to only list hopes. Hopes do not have to manifest themselves in a year, but they can plant a seed for the years to come.
So this year, I hope to write here more often, though I think they’ll lean even harder into the concept of essays. I’ll write DEI columns for Sincerely (with my friend and partner, Emma Carew Grovum). I’ll hope to publish resources in RJI and other places that have room for me. Less Twitter, less wallowing in my words alone, less hustle.
BTW, I will be sad if you unsubscribe, but I will understand if you are thinking “who is this woman and I do not have time for this newsletter anymore.” I will be happy if you hit reply and let me know what you think of the goals workbook, or anything else.
A note on printing the booklets: They’re designed to be printed out in borderless, two-sided “booklet” form on your printer. It’ll take four 8.5×11 pieces of paper, folded in half (roughly A5 for you stationary nerds).
Recommendations
Reading // Cooking // Prepping // Loving //
Reading/
The City of Brass, the beginning of a fantasy trilogy set in the Middle East. I find I’m increasingly drawn to not only BIPOC authors, but settings outside of my experience. Though, I may or may not have read some Colleen Hoover this year, like many others.
Cooking/
There is this Vietnamese soup, mang cua (asparagus and crab), that I tend to crave in the winter. My mom never made it, but it is one of the only other things we order when we go out to get lobster(a family tradition). I found a slightly lazy recipe that uses shrimp, which I usually have on hand, instead of crab.
Prepping/
My 2023 planner is this NOLTY Dec-Dec planner, which has a minimal weekly layout on top of two pages for notes and lists. If you are in the market, here’s all the notebooks and planners I’ve looked at.
It lives in a beautiful handmade leather cover made by an Instagram seller, Marija, aka bujoplanner.
Loving/
My new handmade ceramic egg candle by Collin Garrety. Where I’ll find replacement, yolks, I have no idea.
Adorableness
