January 1, 2023

It is the first day of the 2,023 year of the marking of the evening following the stigmata that completed a story, 33 years long. I read many stories, but tales of history allow years, numbers to ascend. So, when the ancient is uttered in any fashion it has become of some importance, if not awareness, that I be thoughtful – regarding colonialism, and the many bloodlines that have shared their visions and experiences, some of which have become doctrine, others folklore. 

Today is the New Year of much of the West. And this is the seventh year of Braving the Days. I thought I’d become an existentialist writer. At 16, I thought I’d concoct stories of cool detachment like that of Meursault, who was a stranger to all but not himself, who loved Marie, a human being who was able to swim in the ocean of Algeria and was present in a time of tumult. That romance was important as there was no glaring question of whether Meursault could be loved, but as a reader, you wonder. Marie arrives one day; a day that was not momentous, but she happened to conjoin journeys. Meursault seemed so far away and she was able to align.

I wanted to tell stories of unique romances that did not fit neatly into the confines of what we are taught to envisage, presuppose; born into a world of supplemented ideas of how should function, where it fits and how long the seed of a glance, two eyes connecting should take to sprout and become oak trees of wisdom. But wisdom is always a result of love.

With all this expressed, I did not write the volumes I’ve described so early on in life. Instead, I write droplets that feed my soul; not quite able to release and outpouring through the conditioning of a tempered disposition in which I had to adapt in order to survive.  

This afternoon offers a frame for an overture, even if it is small, it may widen the spirit and healthily inflate the esoteric lungs for those who encounter these words. All I must do is open my heart and brave each day.

We say ‘happy’ New Year, which is a good thing.  This day brings a chance to wish those we love happiness and celebrate the beginning of the Earth’s cycle around the sun. It’s a chance to acknowledge an orbit that we are not trained to recognize daily, but it occurs. This is also a good thing. Without the sun, we would not be warm, the atmosphere would not be suitable for life. 

Happy New Year.