1. I’m taking a break next week to not post, drink too much coffee, and enjoy Dead Week:
Dead Week isn’t a week off for everyone, or at least the thing it is a week off from isn’t work. Rather, it is a week off from the forward-motion drive of the rest of the year. It is a time against ambition and against striving. Whatever we hoped to finish is either finished or it’s not going to happen this week, and all our successes and failures from the previous year are already tallied up. It’s too late for everything; Dead Week is the luxurious relief of giving up.
2. I’m prepping for Christmas dinner:
3. I’m bracing for January, with advice from Mike Monteiro:
Hope and optimism will come from helping those that need it. Hope and optimism will come from seeing that our actions, both big and small, can help others. Buy someone a fucking sandwich. Help someone pay their rent. Drive someone to the grocery store. And yes, put your body between their and those that would hurt them. Let people know you are here should they need you.
Help is not coming. You’re already here. I hope you’re ready. I’m optimistic you are.
4. And I’m celebrating the Solstice tomorrow! We made it; the sun is coming back. Thank you, sun.