running into a new year
on my mind
So much for easing into the new year, huh?
We’re a few weeks into 2021, yet it still feels suspiciously like 2020 in overtime.
I had the last few weeks of December off, so I took the opportunity to slow down and think about how I wanted to enter 2021. I did some vision boarding and journal reflections on different areas of my life, sketching out some rough goals and affirmations. We’ll see how that goes of course, since my 2020 goals were mostly a miss.
As we process the white supremacist riots that took over the Capitol, watch rising COVID numbers, franticly search for available vaccines, and await the upcoming inauguration, I am choosing to find joy in the small moments, take breaks from the news, protect my work/life boundaries, and appreciate the work of grassroots organizers.
I love this poem by Lucille Clifton, which inspired this newsletter’s subject line. What are you trying to bring into 2021 or leave behind?
what i’m noting
Watch // Bridgerton, your Grace. I binged this period drama (think Pride and Prejudice mixed with Gossip Girl) in a weekend and am now obsessed with the Duke of Hastings, who also appears in the beautiful film, Sylvie’s Love. But please read this and this essay after breaking down the show’s problematic approach to race, class and gender.
Listen // Clubhouse. You’ll need an invite to use this chaotic drop-in audio/live podcast-like app (I have a few invites!) but it’s given me the chance to have so many thought-provoking and hilarious conversations with new and old friends. The most entertaining and well moderated room by far was yesterday’s Clubhouse Top Model, complete with people pretending to the ANTM judges and participants PTRing (updating their profile pics) to match each round’s modeling challenge. I have stayed far away from the rooms of people giving advice/discussing how to be billionaires, but that’s on there too, if that’s your thing.
Read // The Vanishing Half. I wasn’t as enchanted by this book as I wanted to be, after hearing all the glowing praise and acclaim it has received from critics and friends, but I’d still recommend it for its beautiful prose and how it explores identity, sibling and mother/daughter relationships, race and colorism. If you’ve read it, please share your thoughts with me (and I’ll explain what left me dissatisfied)!
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— Nesima