January.
A frigid winter evening, where the only respite is a glimmer of sunlight clinging to the horizon.
A time to reflect, plan and reconnect.
In some ways it feels exactly the same as it did a few days ago– when it was 2017. The wind is still bitterly cold, the ground is still heaped with snow, the politicians are still in power, and winter is still winter.
Yet, something has shifted. Perhaps it’s our desire to recommit to the visions we entertained in the autumn, or to dream those dreams we had given up on in heat of late summer. There’s a momentum, a drive, a desire to see things change. To make change.
It feels as though 2018 will be a year that demands us to make change. To be kinder. Not because we should, but because we will have no choice. It feels like a year that urges us to be more human and more accountable than we have ever been.
Perhaps 2018 will be a year where we no longer tolerate ignorance, hatred and vile politics because we are too numb or too privileged to care. Perhaps 2018 will be the year that we stand up for each other in real, tangible ways. Perhaps it’ll be a year where we finally do better, and demand better.
The first week of a new year is always hopeful, always full of possibility. Let’s make this one less divisive.
I’m going to start by committing to the projects I have been too afraid to begin.
With a grant to complete my third book, I have nowhere to hide but the page.
I’ll take the leap from “I’m not good enough” to “enough is enough” and start submitting unpublished poems to journals, developing new workshop programs for adults and youth, performing and collaborating, and standing up whenever I witness injustice.
That’s my dream for this year.
Lofty, yes. Optimistic, yes. Possible? Check back in December.
What’s your dream for 2018?
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