running into a new year

a 2025 reflection inspired by lucille clifton

Hello!

Here’s my first Substack post after not writing my Manifest Monthly newsletter for nearly six months. 2024 was one of the most difficult years of my life, yet, I’m here and you’re here too. We’ve made it to another year of life and that’s no small thing. Survival is often taken for granted. It’s something I don’t think about most days.

Yet, at the end of an old year and a beginning of new one, I find myself reflecting on what has happened in my life. This time last year, I was deep in a postpartum depression that I had thought I had bypassed (ha!) Yet, there were so many wonderful things happening in my life at the same time. I don’t think I could really allow myself to process the duality of that experience. I’m writing this post because I think I can finally begin processing the past year. I’ve also just started being able to write about this past year (and quite frankly the two years before that).

I’m spending time with a poem I often return to at the beginning of a new year. And of course, it’s by Lucille Clifton.

i am running into a new year

By Lucille Clifton

i am running into a new year

and the old years blow back

like a wind

that i catch in my hair

like strong fingers like

all my old promises and

it will be hard to let go

of what i said to myself

about myself

when i was sixteen and

twenty-six and thirty-six

even thirty-six but

i am running into a new year

and i beg what i love and

i leave to forgive me

I am so in love with how Clifton describes the shifting of time and learning of lessons that can occur year over year, in just a few lines. And I find it incredibly profound that she repeats “even thirty-six” because no matter our age or years of experience, we are continually learning and evolving.

And with that, this Substack is an evolution of my previous newsletter “Manifest Monthly” and the accompanying Facebook group “A Creative Space.” I’ll be sharing reflections and micro-meditations (for free), just like the newsletter. Yet, I’ll be sharing more in-depth meditations, writing/reflection prompts, and asynchronous craft and meditation talks for paid-subscribers.

This transition is new and I am excited and eager to see how it unfolds. I hope you’ll join me, connect with others, and more importantly keep evolving into your truest self.