Dear 2023,

Here's to new chapters. And irony.

Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash

It’s a windy gray day in Ohio. This is exactly the weather I would write for a world in which the cheating wolverines are crowned national champs.

A fitting end to 2023.

I realized two things yesterday.

1. The first week of the year doesn’t really count.

2. And it’s really hard to live without a chapter outline.

Next year, I think I’ll spend the first week of the year on a beach. And today, I’m going to attempt a chapter outline.

However, life keeps throwing curve balls, plot twists, random moments of irony into the story.

That’s it, isn’t it? The curve balls in life. That’s the shit.

Here we are, in the batter’s box, sitting dead red waiting on a fastball and we get blindsided by a change up.

Dogs die. Cancer appears. Tornadoes rip through.

Fucking plot twists.

So long, 2023. You taught me so many things:

1. body parts can be replaced

2. listening is done with the eyes as much as the ears

3. winter is always replaced by spring

4. say what needs to be said then shut the fuck up

5. it’s ok (necessary) to take a child’s pose

Hello, 2024, can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve.

And to you my readers and friends, write your outlines well and pivot in the irony. Then remind yourself, no one likes a story without a plot twist.

Let’s do this new year!

Juli