Another Year

Another year around the sun, another 365 days tallied, another torrent of experiences weathered and another boatload of lessons learned.

Last December, my life was different from how it is today.

I’ve had loved ones experience all sorts of traumas. I’ve suffered from, learned about, and attempted to ameliorate (unsuccessfully at first, but more successfully over time) several disruptive medical issues.

I’ve altered (and had altered by external forces) my day-to-day routines, rituals, and work.

I’ve made new friends, I’ve taken up new hobbies, I’ve set myself fresh goals and obligations.

My relationships have grown and evolved, including my relationship with myself: my mind, my body, my sense of who I am and who I want to be.

I published a book and dreamed-up (and mapped-out) another that I’ll start writing next month.

This year has been strange in that I have a vague sense that I’m in the process of coiling a spring; that a whole lot of what’s happening now (this year in particular) is preparation for something else, rather than (merely) an end unto itself.

I think it’s possible, maybe even likely, that the next-step thing I’m preparing for is my 40s, and from there the rest of my life.

Whether that’s true or not, each year represents 365 days of self-honing: shaping ourselves into the people we’ll become next, and in the process readying ourselves for a world that is likewise ever-changing.

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