I always enjoy reflecting, but I sometimes find it difficult to do the grand ones—the annual reports. But something is better than nothing, particularly when talking about gratitude.
So yeah, thanks 2023 :)
Thank you for reminding me how amazing books are, from the short and profound to the long and wondrous. Thanks to the writers—of books, blogs, and otherwise—who continue to leave me with countless lines to chew on:
…as he reconstructs Zeno’s translation, he realizes that the truth is infinitely more complicated, that we are all beautiful even as we are all part of the problem, and that to be a part of the problem is to be human.
So this was the rest of his life. It felt like a party to which he’d been invited, but at an address he couldn’t actually locate. Someone must be having fun at it, this life of his; only, right at the moment, it wasn’t him.
Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
I know now there’s one thing you’ve all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn.
Thank you for helping me realize—indeed, feel—how closely intertwined physical and psychological pain are, and how one (if there even is a difference between the two) can so easily mediate the other. Thank you for allowing me to explore the emotion of despair, and for surrounding me with people who allowed me to find the space around it. Thank you for shattering my fiercely guarded identity as a highly capable athlete so that I might explore what it means to be a million other things. That my desire to explore my body’s limits remains aflame after a year like this one has brought insights that I may not have had otherwise.
Thank you for bringing me to the roaring Yuba River, and allowing me to enjoy its presence next to my favorite person. I have yet to reach a place of satisfaction when it comes to the amount of time I spend on my phone, but a weekend without it next to the ceaseless, emerald flow of water planted an immovable seed that I hope will spur greater changes in the year to come.
Thank you for bringing me a significant couple of inches along the path of understanding what this whole meditation thing is really about. Be still, allow everything to be exactly as it is, and rest as awareness.
Thanks for letting me go to March Madness and witness a multi-part Cinderella story alongside friends, new and old. That was freaking awesome.
Thank you for giving me the patience—which, at times, went unseen or ignored—that is needed to create and strengthen friendships in new places. As 2023 comes to a close, I have a strong, felt connection with entire groups of people that coalesced in ways that are hard to track or tie together. Thank you for putting logs on the fire of old friendships and reminding me how special it is to hold bonds that provide such comfortable joy even when handfuls of months pass in between encounters. Thank you for the opportunity to deepen my relationship with my parents beyond parents—instead, as close friends, as fellow complex humans with hopes and preferences and biases. This has continued to develop even from afar along with interspersed moments of physical proximity that I have come to cherish above all else.
Thank you (thank you so, so much) for showing me just how much music has to offer us all. I’ve always enjoyed music, but this year’s experiences—from transcendental viewing experiences among vast crowds to shedding tears of joy in my car to reviving a dormant creative outlet—have unlocked (or unknotted) things within me that I didn’t know (or perhaps forgot) were there. Music, in its many forms, really is the answer, and I’m looking forward to the sounds and movements of 2024.
Thanks for all the awesome vegan food, and the sunsets. Especially the sunsets.
Looking forward to more music and more sunsets in 2024 with all of you! A wonderful blog to end 2023 and just enough room to add to my book! Love you so much! ♾️🎶🌅
thank YOU. i love you so much………… your writings uplift.