My accomplished, wonderful pals
2024 was difficult—but ultimately very good—for me. Something that got me through the difficult parts was enjoying the successes of my friends, pals, and comrades, of which I offer an incomplete list here, in roughly chronological order:
- The boffins over at Fenwick released the Think Like a Writer course, which I have taken and personally recommend. Most online courses are bad. Not this one. Instead, it’s a three-week commitment that produces immediate, durable results. (I wrote about this in May).
- Lissy launched her playful learning company, HuMindWise, “turning burnout, stress, and imposter syndrome into opportunities for growth through game based learning and community.”
- Devon completed and published her book project: The Accessibility Operations Guidebook. (My notes from October.)
- A bunch of my friends rafted the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. No names and no URLs to share, but everything about that adventure astonished and inspired me.
- Shannon and Jamie completed their 80’s Kids cover album, which you can stream now, and which they’re taking on the road next year. My favorite track is the Boss’s Dancing in the Dark; play it really loud.
- Over the summer and fall, Neetal released a set of 4 children’s books in her Pineapple Friends series of social impact books for kids. These passed muster with my seven-year-old child—so they’re the real deal.
On the site in 2024
I only shared one new blog post this year. I did manage to keep up with monthly links & notes, and did a bunch of cleanup—tidying older posts, organizing the junk drawer, and so forth. Everything about this was good, but I’d like to do more soon.
A format for year-end reflection
Greg and Brett at Same Team Partners created a simple, free activity called Replay and Reset for 2025. I worked through this over the weekend—in under an hour—and uncovered a couple ah-has as well as committed to some new to-dos for the new year. I encourage you to try this for yourself.
- If you’re a video person, watch this 10-minute introduction that walks you through the activity and how to do it on your own.
- After drafting my own Replay and Reset for 2025, I had coffee with Greg and shared what I came up with. Here’s what Greg had to say about that.
The bit about my waders
I hope you find some time to say farewell to 2024 and get your waders on for 2025. The water is rising fast and looking pretty choppy.
I leave you with this, from §67 of the Tao Te Ching, in Stephen Mitchell’s translation. It’s as good an answer as any to the question of how we are meant to proceed from here.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.