It's December. Does that mean anything?
In which an artist grapples with various concepts such as time, space, rituals, and Christmas mayhem.
According to the calendar we’ve collectively decided upon to keep the world from dissolving into complete anarchy (or would it?), we made it to December. In fact we are on the second day already. Look at us go.
This past week my little brain skipped ahead by a day and I thought it was already the 28th, and publicly wished my sister a happy birthday a day early. May I reiterate it’s not that I got her birthday wrong. It’s that time is a construct, a thing we’ve created to make a container in which to exist, a tool to make sure we can meet each other, which is different than getting to meetings, which is also a function of this decided-upon time/ clock/ calendar structure thing that we’ve made, and in my body and mind and spirit, I’d moved on from the day I was living.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the way the physical, earthly seasons may or may not mirror our internal seasons—it snowed yesterday, and in my life, everything is bursting forth and flourishing. People are grieving in the summertime all the time, for instance. We have calendars and seasons and dates that tell us something, like time is passing, like we are surviving even if it feels like we’re not, like there is something to measure. It’s the last month of the year, which could mean something, but only if we need it to mean something.
I spent November writing about and reflecting on ritual, considering the delineation between habit and practice, a thing we return to that marks a milestone or marks an accomplishment or someone we love or declares that we are transitioning from the mundane to the intentional. And here, in December, which, hello, again, that’s where we are, we’re heading into the holiday season in which we are told that we should buy into the grand spectacle of gifts and busyness and lavishness and celebration. We are inundated with images of full tables and ribbons everywhere. Hallmark movies infiltrate our brains with handsome men in flannel who want to save us from our urban fast-paced ways (let the record show: I’m not-not welcoming handsome men in flannel introducing themselves, just saying). Lately, the arrival of the holiday season has felt like noise, noise, noise.
Which is all to say, it is now December, and I can acknowledge and ritualize the end of another year in whatever way I need to, and I invite you to do the same. This is the year we were given. The story doesn’t magically wrap up just because Spotify summed up our personality in a slideshow. Our lives are in the middle of a sentence. Our lives might be quiet because we’re listening to what someone else is trying to say. The world offers this final month of the year as a gift to pause, to gather with the people we love, the recipients of our frazzled voice notes and companions to our Sunday afternoon errands and maybe the people who’ve known us since we were babies and our coworkers who know all the best gossip and go for midday burritos on Wednesdays.
It’s the end of a year, whatever that means. What do you want to remember? How have you passed the time? What has changed within you? What do you want to celebrate? Who do you want to celebrate with? What do you want to opt out of? What do you want to take with you? What do you want to leave right here?
Dinner With Strangers (sold out)
Tuesday, December 5th at 6:30pm EST (Toronto, Ontario)
Thank you all for your enthusiasm about this event. If you’d like to be the first to know about tickets going on sale for future dinners, please sign up for the earlybird list here.
Poetry Club: Poems About Celebration
Tuesday, December 12th at 7pm EST (Zoom)
The internet’s sweetest gathering is happening on the 12th! Bring a poem you’ve written or a poem you love on the theme. Paid Substack subscribers automatically receive the Zoom link 24 hrs before the event.
In Good Company - a drop in writing workshop
Sunday, December 17th at 10:30am - 12pm EST (Zoom)
Our next gathering of In Good Company (a monthly writing workshop for paid Substack subscribers) is going to be Sunday, December 17th. We’ll be writing about celebration.
No need to register - a Zoom link will be sent out to paid Substack subscribers 24 hrs before.
Nest At Beach Garden: A Yoga Retreat with Cassie Connor & Special Guest: Me
I’ve paired up with my friend Cassie Connor once again, this time at her beautiful week-long yoga retreat in Costa Rica. I’ll be hosting Dinner With Strangers night one and coming up with journal prompts for us throughout the week. What a dream. Find out all the info here.