In just over a week’s time, we will have entered the new year. Each of us will bring something different into 2023 — our own dreams to nurture, voids to fill, questions to answer, and wounds to heal.
You may feel pressured to take on 2023 with ambition, productivity, and boundless energy for self-improvement. So before we get swept up in the hype of another new year, let’s take a moment to honor the most important thing (the thing that I am certain you already carry, simply because you are still here, partaking in this earthly experiment): hope.
I often find myself returning to a definition provided by Maggie Nelson in her prose poetry collection “Bluets.”
“When I say ‘hope,’ I don’t mean hope for anything in particular,” Nelson writes. “I guess I just mean thinking it’s worth it to keep one’s eyes open.”
I find this to be the truest and most helpful definition of the word. To continue surviving with a gentle curiosity, amid the particular stress and grief of the past few years, is an act of hope — one that we should all be proud of.
So as the sun sets on 2022, I’m trying not to fixate on how I can make my life more productive, more regimented, or more profitable. Here are some questions I’m considering instead:
- Who are the people, and what are the activities that replenish my hope? How can I spend more time with those people, and doing those activities?
- Am I carrying any guilt or shame from the past year? What can I forgive myself for?
- What relationships in my life help me feel safe, cared for, and understood? How can I nurture those relationships? How can I help the people I love feel safe, cared for, and understood?
Here is some reading and listening to help you think about survival, care, and keeping your eyes (and ears) open to catch glimpses of a beautiful world.
