Happy New Year sweeties!!! I’ve been spending (quite frankly) an insufferable amount of time reflecting on 2023: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I fell in (and out of) love for the first time in my adult life, recovered from wrenching heartbreak, and had one too many quarter life crises with a side of diet cokes. Time and time again, the page was my refuge. Whether inside my pink and green leather-bound moleskins, the confines of my iPhone notes app, on Instagram or through Substack, writing always brought me closer to finding a home within myself.
As I look toward 2024, I’m excited (and terrified) to start taking myself more seriously as a creative. For as long as I can remember, telling stories has been the thing that’s come easiest to me and the thing I’ve always wanted to do. Growing older, I lost touch with my creative side and traded the carefully organized notebooks and YA novels of my childhood for more practical, financially stable, pursuits. But who says you have to choose? No matter how long or how far I strayed away from the little girl who just wanted to play pretend on the page, I always found myself pulled back. I’m giving in to the cosmic pull I’ve always felt to what brings me joy, and honestly… perhaps it’s time we all do.
Which brings me to… a little experiment I’m trying on January 3. For the last 5+ months, I’ve been making year-round summer bucket lists with small acts of joy to romanticize the mundane. I started sharing these on Instagram and people flooded my DMs (okay, famous!) In all seriousness, the dialogue around joy got me thinking about its utter lack in today’s hustle-culture driven world. Friends and strangers alike shared one thing in common: they were craving a little more levity in the day-to-day. New Years resolutions can be punitive, vision boards can be daunting, so much so that we often cast the ritual aside all together. But there is something to be said about spending a moment or two to prioritize what brings you joy each day and throughout the month.
On January 3, I’ll be hosting a ‘Joymapping’ session and donating the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders. You can join the ~30 minute session at 8:00 ET / 5:00 PT here. I hope to see you there, and to write more this year.
With all the love and joy I can muster,
Becky