Sitting here as the sun’s about to rise on the last weekend of 2024, I find myself finally musing over my 2024 reflections as well as my resolutions for the new year ahead.
I’ve been on a break from writing since the start of the month. It’s something that happens every December as I take a pause to rest and recalibrate. What’s the year been like so far? What’ll the year be like over the next 12 months?
Eternal questions.
Most would say it’s old fashion to be asking, reflecting and resolving these questions each time an old year ends and a new one begins. After all, it’s not 1984 now, it’s 2024 (and the start of 2025 is barely three days away)! Who still makes new year’s resolutions anymore, let alone ponder the past and the future when the present’s right here?!
Well, I for one think it’s inevitable. Who wouldn’t, even for a second, think back and think ahead? Isn’t that the stuff of days? The stuff of life? As Annie Dillard wrote in The Writing Life — “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.“
So how have I spent mine in 2024? And how will I, in 2025?
From Community to Connecting
For me, the past 12 months was spent unpacking my catchword of the year, “Community”. Primarily because of the community of dads I connected with more deeply since getting together in 2023, as well as a writers circle I helped assemble separately the same year.
In the next 12 months, “Connecting” looks to be the new catchword as I seek to further my bonds with these relationships I’ve cultivated.
Reason?
Because I feel that I’ve still so much to learn about how to bake connections into the little details of life. How to draw out meaning and deepen relationships and understanding in the year ahead. And beyond.
To help me, I’m hoping to re-read
– David Brooks‘ 2023 book How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply And Being Deeply Seen
– Vivek H. Murthy‘s 2021 book Together: Loneliness, Health And What Happens When We Find Connection
– Peter Block‘s book (2nd edn, 2018) Community: The Structure of Belonging.
Reason? Why the titles of course!
Enough said.
From Writing With Intent to Writing To Survive & Protect
In 2025, I also hope to continue writing with intent, as my memoir writing coach Marion always says.
To that end, I would
– continue blogging,
– start on my second book manuscript, and
– expand my repertoire with more contributions to various platforms (hopefully paying ones) willing to showcase my works.
All the while remembering to hone my writing voice and dig deeper into who I am in order to differentiate my written pieces from others, human or otherwise! With the threat of AI (copying writers everywhere) looming writ large, I don’t think there’s a better way to survive and protect my writing than to sharpen my voice.
I’m also hoping to diversify my writing so as to grow my craft. I don’t want to get too comfortable and stick to just one lane, like some one-trick pony. I’m so late in the game as it is, having only started writing more seriously and consistently in the last six years as I enter the fifth decade of my existence. So I need to write more and to read more.
And then to write more again.
To help me, I’ll continue to read as widely across fiction and non-fiction books (and articles) as my time would permit. Starting with books still on my bookshelves (real and virtual – Kindle), un-read or half-read. (And maybe even some new books that will eventually find their way there!)
Fiction books like
– James by Percival Everett (2024), which appeared on not one, not two, not three, but 33 different lists of best books of the year!
– The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (2023) because I happened to have a personal, autographed copy of it.
Non-fiction books like
– No One Left: Why The World Needs More Children by Paul Morland (2024)
– What Are Children For: On Ambivalence & Choice by Anastasia Berg & Rachel Wiseman (2024)
– The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (2024)
– Of Boys And Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It by Richard V. Reeves (2022)
– Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book by Allison K. Williams (2021)
– The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel (2020)
– The 10 Commandments of Author Branding: Embrace Authenticity, Gain Book Ambassadors, and Create Your Tribe by Shayla Raquel (2019)
– Manhood Impossible: Men’s Struggles to Control and Transform Their Bodies and Work by Scott Melzer (2018)
– Weaponized Lies: How To Think Critically In A Post-Truth Era by Daniel J. Levitin (2017)
– The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk (2014)
– Walden & Civic Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (1854)
Okay I’m gonna stop now even though there’s still quite a lot more to say about my reading lists, as well as what’s ahead in writing about the other areas of my life. Cornerstone content areas like autism, parenting, poetry, and oh the fact that I’ll turn 55 next year!
So stay tuned and stay connected to my blog in 2025 to find out more okay?
Meantime, wishing you my dear reader a wonderful new year!
