This New Year I'm keeping my feet firmly planted on solid (Sonoma County) ground for the time being, organizing my home and mind and writing space in order to prepare for what promises to be a wild and unprecedented ride ahead for all of us no matter where we are in the world.
Politics, human rights, science, space, climate. How best to keep afloat in what may be the most turbulent period of our collective lifetime? It may not be the perfect place in many aspects, but Sonoma County, in my opinion, is certainly one of the best places on earth to call home, to nourish ourselves and share community with as the world as we know it shakes, rattles, rumbles, roars and rolls into something new and unimagined.
So far this year, as forewarned by astrologists, meteorologists and global political forecasters, it appears we're immediately off to the races by January 6th with freezing, arctic storms and perilous floods in the east and midwest and in the region of England where I was raised. The media has launched its annual diatribe blasting New Year reports of targeted violence in New Orleans and Vegas. Conflicts continue to rage.
And already, several international government leaders have or are preparing to depart the chaotic world stage, including our country's current President.
Saturn is losing its rings of all things. At least to human visibility and by Spring of this year.
It was eerily calm in the joint session of Congress today as American Democracy kept to its word with Trump's election victory certification. Kamala Harris performed her ceremonial duty as President of the Senate with a solid dignity which I found encouraging in its promise of the crucial work to come in counter balance of the days, weeks, months and years ahead on the volatile U.S. political front.
Many more people than ever are turning away from the news, turning inward, focused on their own immediate circumstances, family, friends and neighbors. It's understable in a time when we simply don't know what to believe. And for good reason. Social media channels are corrupt with fake identities, false images and messaging, propaganda we're fed from who knows where. Email and phone calls from bad actors to the point where we delete all but the most trusted missives in our daily in-box.
I'm taking more time to read the Sunday newspaper in depth. It may not be unbiased either, but it's certainly better for my blood pressure than absorbing the hysterical tone of the national network news. Are we to become an entirely ignorant nation of docile and unquestioning creatures? I hope not. But how are we to stay informed? Connect? It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the near future with our shaky forms of communication. Our storytelling. A simple phone call to and from an elderly friend or family member when traditional landlines become obsolete.
Writing has never felt more compelling to me as it does in the here and now. Books, feature articles, plays, television, screen writing, poetry, journals, storytelling in all its forms carries us into new frontiers with a record of the past.
And there are a myriad wonderous things to write and read about. Random acts of kindness, of love and bravery, of visionary prowess, invention and discovery. Sunrise, sunset, the powerful pull of the Pacific, fresh produce, trees and plants, wildlife and why we can't get enough of it all despite the struggle.
Each December I sit down and make time to pen several handwritten letters to old friends in faraway places to fold in with a Christmas card. I take this stack of old fashioned envelopes to the post office and pay for the international stamps and send them off around the world, knowing that sometime between ten to fifteen days, my words will sit open on various kitchen tables, besides various mugs of steaming hot tea, or glasses of wine and be read, transmitting my recap of how I've interpreted the world this past year into the mind of those who generally return the favor, enlightening me with their own experiences of wonder, love, loss and imagination for the future, from their particular vantage point.
Maybe we will return to the days of pen and ink, of print, yet? That's the romantic in me. But also the pragmatic. Write it down, share it, whatever it is you'd like the world to know, or someone in the world to know, at least. Let's restart a reading and writing intention for 2025. Don't get lost in the wake of the sleeper waves which threaten to sneak up on us on a daily basis it seems. Read more. Stay afloat.
It is a wonderful world aside from the scary stuff that makes us afraid to turn on the TV. And we humans are resilient after all. I'm looking forward to an eventful 2025 recap at the end of this new year. What will we make of it all? Something good, I hope. An end to current conflicts.
Wishing you comfort and wisdom, stories, knowledge and warmth and most of all, a year with love as its main focus.
Frances
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