I’m not sure why nostalgia grabs us all so tightly or why even a decade later we get soft over all that came to pass, but January generally asks us remember what is important. To check ourselves. Name a direction. Voice our purpose. Take a step. I will admit none of this feels easy in the midst of so much dismantling, in the chaos of ICE, in what feels bigger than any hurdle we have faced before. But those are the conditions we face and there is no choice but to do something. Dive in. Swim good. My wish? Let 2026 be the year you do what you said you were going to when you were 23 and filled with crazy-ass dreams and wacko hopes and secret desires.
Literary Citizenship
Last Saturday I attended the Inaugural Laguna Beach Literary Festival, and I’m so glad I did, because the whole experience strengthened my resolve to be a better Literary Citizen. Simply put, that’s a person who reads. Like me. Like you, as you are reading this. Of course I also happen to be a person who writes, but that’s a side note to my conviction to read widely, to buy books, to pop into my local bookstore and ask for their favorites, basically to consider the rich nuances of humanity through novels and non-fiction alike. Reading to view our present dilemmas against the atrocities of the past. To acknowledge flaws in beliefs that were once so solid. Reading to better understand those who I can’t and reading to find solidarity. Reading generates questions like why is it that authoritarian regimes burn books? Why is educational funding cut before anything else? Why is everyone ingesting their information and imagination via visuals like TikTok and YouTube? Whose interest is being served by this shift away from print? Why is maintaining literary citizenship a threat to governments who don’t respect your ideas, your past, your rights, your very existence? By reading you know exactly why.
The Creative Space
In these last weeks dominated by the Wood Snake I want so badly to shed the old useless notions but am overwhelmed by what I can’t control which is seemingly controlling me. It is exhausting fighting and doing nothing at the same time. So today, instead of writing about my rage and impotence to enact change, I will repost from years ago, when I considered the power of the creative spark, the one that drives our hearts and souls and minds straight into our most powerful emotion: love. Just as important now, don’t you agree. Before we venture on the Fire Horse of 2026 and realize your next bold adventure into being, let’s prepare. Be mindful. Get some rest. Dream boldly. That enormous imaginative space is just waiting for us to enter, together, to build back our beautiful collective vision with all the collective love we can muster.
Nine Cent Girl 