The First Pancake

The beginning of the year often brings a sense of a fresh start. While I don’t usually make new year’s resolutions, I do try to lean into that feeling of new year energy, often activated by a healthy jump in the frigid ocean. (I’m talking about the polar bear swim of course, a Canadian New […]

All Things Considered

2023 is the first year in a long time (since the pre-pandemic days at least) that I haven’t felt that “get me the heck out of here” feeling by the end. Not that it’s a roaring celebration. It’s more of an “I made it this far so keep carrying on” feeling. I suppose that means […]

Darkest Night

Tonight is Winter Solstice, the longest and darkest night of the year. And it couldn’t have come sooner. I’ve really been feeling the weight of darkness recently, as the days get shorter, and the end of the year draws near. It’s been a really good year in some ways, but there have also been some […]

Season Finale

My love lifeis a bit like a K-dramawhere every season endswith someone leaving on an airplane. All I wantis to find someone who’s willing to stayand gives me a reasonto stay, too. At least, that’s what I thought I wanted.But what ifI find someone who says,“Let’s pack our bags and leave together…”

Wrapped

If you’re a Spotify person, or even if you’re not, you’ve probably seen the “Spotify Wrapped” posts popping up around social media today. I don’t usually like companies/programs to know a whole lot about my life, but with Spotify… the relationship is almost intimate. Like, Spotify knows me, and sometimes it’s almost eerie how spot […]

Threads

Tonight I was invited to share a bit of my life story with a group of friends. I’ve shared parts of my story many times before, including all around this blog. However, it was the first time in a long time where, in the course of telling my story, I didn’t feel compelled to talk […]

The Fog Is Here

The fog settled in today. That harbinger of winter, in my humid coastal city, as the temperature cools and the air turns itself opaque. It happened within moments, while shopping with my roommate for ingredients for our official welcoming winter meal. We entered the store through clear air and emerged into mist. I feel comforted […]

Irreplaceable

Lately it seems a few things around here are are burning out. My electric kettle has chosen this week to cease its functioning. It was on the fritz for awhile, and now it’s not coming on at all. My bathroom lightbulbs have also both gone out within days of each other, as if they planned […]

New Traditions

Today I went to the Christmas market with my brother and sis-in-law. It’s the third year we’ve done it so I think that makes it a tradition? The holiday traditions I grew up with don’t exist so much now. For one thing, my grandparents would always host big Christmas meals for the extended family, and […]

Wild Places

There are some wild places around here. Sometimes I think there’s a lot less separating what’s real and what’s fantasy than we might believe. Just as mind-body dualism is an oversimplification of what it means to be, “real-fantasy” doesn’t give credit to the complexity of our existence. We have infinite, entire worlds created by creative […]