It’s that time of year—time to look back on 2023 and forward to 2024. Happy New Year!
Favs of the year in art + pop culture
NEWSPAPER :: County Highway — coolest newspaper in America? (found at Wall Drug)
TV SHOW :: “Daisy Jones & the Six” — the creative process wrapped up in a love story (or was it the other way around?) … either way, what’s not to love? Plus, good soundtrack!
FILM :: “Barbie” — basically the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater in years
FILM :: “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” — “The Hunger Games” held up a high bar, but this prequel totally rose to the occasion and was just as good, if not better, than the trilogy.
MUSIC :: Sarah Klang — found her last fall, continued to love everything she put out this year ♥︎
BOOK :: “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin — highly recommend for any artist/creator (which is everyone, right?) … one of the best books I’ve read in years (here are some highlights and takeaways)
What I learned in 2023
✸ You don’t have to do anything to “earn” love.
✸ Push through the most difficult parts of the creative process if you want to have a breakthrough to the other side—which, yes, might lead to another road block that you have to navigate through.
✸ If you loved someone enough to be in a committed partnership with them, that love never goes away, even when the partnership does.
✸ No one tent camps anymore.
✸ If you’re not present, you’re gonna miss your whole life.
✸ I don’t want to look back on my life—or any period of it—and wonder, “Did I appreciate it enough?”
✸ Road medicine is potent. “Hearth medicine” can be just as strong!
✸ We are all alive here with each other for a short time. We gotta celebrate that.
My 7 eras of 2023
Because this year was such an amalgam of totally different lives and mindsets and surroundings, I had the urge to document it (and count them).
JAN — Grieving the loss of Uncle Doo, a lifelong elder who I looked up to and my only blood relative who ever really understood me—and the only one who made sense to me, too. We talked weekly for years. The dead of winter very much felt like the dead of winter.
FEB/MARCH — Told by property management I need to move out “ASAP” due to water damage in my apartment, spent weeks debating on whether I should get another rental or go on the road again, all while frantically searching for apartments to rent and homes to buy and realizing I can no longer afford rentals in Santa Fe or to buy a home pretty much anywhere in New Mexico.
APRIL — Found and moved into what I thought was my dream home, out on a country road in New Mexico near my favorite hot springs, only to get mold sick and carbon monoxide poisoning upon arrival. I pitched a tent in the backyard, set up a table, and lived and worked mostly outside (in the snow and rain, while sick). Lost faith in God for the first time in my life.
MAY — Decided to get rid of nearly everything I own (again), packed the rest in a storage unit, and packed my car with essentials. Had reached my “done” point of signing year leases in places that inevitably had water damage and made me sick. Destiny called. I was going on the road.
JUNE/JULY/AUG — The Scottsdale months, the hottest summer on record there, a peaceful sanctuary for me to heal and rest while housesitting—and swim and work on my book.
SEPT/OCT — On the road »» Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida panhandle, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland. Woohoo! Road medicine.
NOV/DEC — Homecoming, time reconnecting with people, most notably my sister and 3-year-old niece, who I’ve been staying with. My stepdad calls this the “hearth medicine.” It cuts just as deep as road medicine, and I’ve learned one thing through all this: Regardless of how hard I try, nothing can ever prepare me for living on the road, and nothing prepares me for these return visits to Maryland, surrounded by people 24/7! Might I add, I’ve found a certain magic to Maryland … walking Frederick and Hagerstown streets at night, seeing people I love, magic in the familiar and sparkly eyes of reunions.
JOURNAL PROMPTS / THINGS TO ASK YOURSELF GOING INTO 2024
What do you want to feel?
What do you want to experience?
Where is your world widening?
Where do you want to create more spaciousness?
What is taking up too much bandwidth?
What did you learn in 2023?
What altered you? Shook you? Woke you up?
What can you be thankful for?
What do you want to leave in 2023? What do you want to take into 2024?
What is your mantra for 2024?
For those wondering, I am in the midst of looking for a temporary (and mold-free) room to rent so I can 1) get my head on straight again, 2) finish my book, and 3) find a van and build it out so I can get back on the road this spring!
writing
ebooks + zines
astrology readings
get postcards and snail mail
I 🧡 snail mail: 9701 Montgomery N.E. #1057, Albuquerque, NM 87111
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