I’ve missed several of these Fridays as the holidays bore down, and we’re now in a new year, and I always want to treat new things tenderly. This past week has been a series of whiplashing emotions, personal and public, and I’ve found it difficult to think of how to contribute: how to be available to my furious and grieving friends and family members while trying to keep on top of the work which, incredibly, is still expected to continue, to a schedule set in a time that didn’t have pandemics or violent insurrections to account for. (I found this Reductress image cathartic.)
For the last two years I’ve had a “Hopes, Dreams, Intentions” page at the opening of my journal; I usually find revisiting them to be a mixture of painful and moving. There are always goals unmet, plans derailed, but I find a curious comfort in seeing how consistent my longings are — a winding shoreline of the self, marked by ebb and flow, all the advances and retreats of a tidal life.
This year, I left the page blank. I wanted to build the structure of the year ahead, its grids and lists, before allowing myself to think of what I hope, what I dream, what I intend, because I spent the first several days of this month unable to proceed otherwise. I’d been stymied by small things — a new provincial lockdown, a favourite pen breaking, a pain in my left hand — and then, swiftly, stymied by enormous things. But I’ve done that, now; I know the rough shape of this month, of what’s expected of me and when, and the next month, and the one after that, and it’s enough to be getting on with, enough to let myself return to the bigger questions.
So I want to ask you: what do you hope, for this year? What do you dream? And what do you intend?
Wishing you all love, health, safety, nourishment, and, yes, happiness, in this New Year,
Happy New Year to all. Personally, if I could have canceled my subscription to 2021 after the 7-day free trial I would have, but alas... Honestly Amal, I just want peace, an end to all hatefulness, and compassionate governance. I’m sure any reader knows my country of origin...
Well, my wife and I both started new jobs, as faculty, at the same university, and we'll be running a lab together. Hopes, dreams and intentions? To be the best (kindest, most supportive, enabling of success and good research) professors we can be.
For the country my wife and I both grew up in? We're hoping for healing. For consequences. But to be able to go back and visit family.
Happy New Year Amal! This year, I hope for creativity, I dream of peace, and I intend to continue the good fight.
I also look forward to more of these posts and to finding out about all the exciting things you get up to in 2021 :) Wishing you and Stu your loved ones all the best!
oh so many things. To finish writing the first draft of ALL THE WORDS. That is my hope. To be with friends both new and old -- IN PERSON, with HUGS. That is my dream. To sharpen my sword and fight for what needs fighting for in our damaged land -- if by swords one meant ballots and advocacy and donating to the right causes that can do the work that an aging professor cannot do. That, is my intent.
Hi Amal, happy new year, and thank you for the inspiring and encouraging words. I haven't had the energy to post much on social media these days, but I want to try engaging more with the wonderful people in our community. I forget that some of the energy that goes in, also gets returned. So this is me, sending a small bit of myself into the world, a very small contribution that I know will pay dividends in energy and positivity. I'm feeling it already : )
I hope for laugher and connections. I hope that I'll find the courage to take more chances, like the me of 2003, who decided it would be fun to buy a car from a stranger in the middle of Tokyo, and somehow find my way back to my small rural town over four hours away. I had only been in Japan for a few weeks and didn't speak much Japanese. I couldn't read it, had no gps or map, I had never driven on the other side of the road, but it was a blast. Laughter and courage, that's what I'll hope for this year.
Happy new year, friends <3 This year I firmly intend to get sufficiently in sync with the passage of time to actually make it to these threads. My hopes are all wispy nebulous things that are summarisable as "may it all get better as far as the world lets it". We'll see how it goes, I suppose.
While I confess to daydreaming, I try NOT to dream too much because I struggle so much with feelings of failure and disappointment and regret. I try to deal with that by focusing on the present and finding the value in what’s already before me.
I intend to work hard and fast on a couple chosen projects; to support my family; to act as a bridge to peace among my different circles. I am in the position of being one of the few non-conservatives present in the lives of certain people; I feel that right now that role has taken on a greater urgency and intensity as the need to keep fellow citizens from sliding into isolation and extremism increases.
Happy new year to everyone. I have several projects continuing from last year, some of which have been made very slow and some of which had deadlines set when the world was in a better place. Not least of which is campaigning for the Greens in the Holyrood election in May
What I hope is that I'll manage to get everything moving without causing myself too much harm from stretching a mind that has become stiff with stress and isolation.
What I dream is that all the things I'm doing will help to make Scotland a better or at least less bigoted place to live and what I'm doing whether it's political or creative will make a difference to someone.
What I intend is to slow my pace down, to find time for music, and reading books on paper, and friends, and cooking, and the things that make life worthwhile. That way I'll have more resources to devote to the work.
Friday Open Thread (with a New Year)
Happy New Year to all. Personally, if I could have canceled my subscription to 2021 after the 7-day free trial I would have, but alas... Honestly Amal, I just want peace, an end to all hatefulness, and compassionate governance. I’m sure any reader knows my country of origin...
Happy new year everyone. <3
I *hope* for sharing a kiss in 2021.
Hi Amal,
Sending hugs. Take as much time as you need to process and feel.
I guess for my I hope for financial freedom, but that's far off, and my resolution for this year is to save a modest sum of money.
And my intention is to hopefully make some friend's lives better or happy, if even for a brief moment.
Well, my wife and I both started new jobs, as faculty, at the same university, and we'll be running a lab together. Hopes, dreams and intentions? To be the best (kindest, most supportive, enabling of success and good research) professors we can be.
For the country my wife and I both grew up in? We're hoping for healing. For consequences. But to be able to go back and visit family.
Happy New Year Amal! This year, I hope for creativity, I dream of peace, and I intend to continue the good fight.
I also look forward to more of these posts and to finding out about all the exciting things you get up to in 2021 :) Wishing you and Stu your loved ones all the best!
oh so many things. To finish writing the first draft of ALL THE WORDS. That is my hope. To be with friends both new and old -- IN PERSON, with HUGS. That is my dream. To sharpen my sword and fight for what needs fighting for in our damaged land -- if by swords one meant ballots and advocacy and donating to the right causes that can do the work that an aging professor cannot do. That, is my intent.
Hi Amal, happy new year, and thank you for the inspiring and encouraging words. I haven't had the energy to post much on social media these days, but I want to try engaging more with the wonderful people in our community. I forget that some of the energy that goes in, also gets returned. So this is me, sending a small bit of myself into the world, a very small contribution that I know will pay dividends in energy and positivity. I'm feeling it already : )
I hope for laugher and connections. I hope that I'll find the courage to take more chances, like the me of 2003, who decided it would be fun to buy a car from a stranger in the middle of Tokyo, and somehow find my way back to my small rural town over four hours away. I had only been in Japan for a few weeks and didn't speak much Japanese. I couldn't read it, had no gps or map, I had never driven on the other side of the road, but it was a blast. Laughter and courage, that's what I'll hope for this year.
Happy new year, friends <3 This year I firmly intend to get sufficiently in sync with the passage of time to actually make it to these threads. My hopes are all wispy nebulous things that are summarisable as "may it all get better as far as the world lets it". We'll see how it goes, I suppose.
I hope my democracy doesn’t collapse.
While I confess to daydreaming, I try NOT to dream too much because I struggle so much with feelings of failure and disappointment and regret. I try to deal with that by focusing on the present and finding the value in what’s already before me.
I intend to work hard and fast on a couple chosen projects; to support my family; to act as a bridge to peace among my different circles. I am in the position of being one of the few non-conservatives present in the lives of certain people; I feel that right now that role has taken on a greater urgency and intensity as the need to keep fellow citizens from sliding into isolation and extremism increases.
Happy new year to everyone. I have several projects continuing from last year, some of which have been made very slow and some of which had deadlines set when the world was in a better place. Not least of which is campaigning for the Greens in the Holyrood election in May
What I hope is that I'll manage to get everything moving without causing myself too much harm from stretching a mind that has become stiff with stress and isolation.
What I dream is that all the things I'm doing will help to make Scotland a better or at least less bigoted place to live and what I'm doing whether it's political or creative will make a difference to someone.
What I intend is to slow my pace down, to find time for music, and reading books on paper, and friends, and cooking, and the things that make life worthwhile. That way I'll have more resources to devote to the work.