no. 6: january 1, 2024

January 1, 2024

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overlooking the fraser river from heritage park on a sunny winter day — *river on a sunny winter day*

no. 6: january 1, 2024

Hi again friend,

Happy New Year to you! I hope the first few hours have been gentle and relaxing. I’ve spent the last few days organizing our house, reading, and spending time in nature.

I’ve also been busy writing: after the last love letter, I went to work on my novel, and realized it wasn’t what I wanted to be working on at this moment. So instead, I started another novel that I’ve had in my head for years now—I just hadn’t figured out exactly what it would be before now. I wrote 2,377 words, and will be working on it more later today.

I also started editing some poems for a book I’ll be publishing sometime in 2024. Without getting into it all here, a poetry book of mine that was supposed to be released by a publisher this past fall didn’t happen, and so I’m going to publish the book myself at some point—I just want to make sure it’s in top shape before then!

(I’ll be explaining the whole thing on my Youtube channel at some point.)

repotting house plants in winter light on new year's eve — *repotting house plants on new year’s eve*

But back to the new year: I’m not huge on setting firm goals for myself—you can read about why here—but I do like to dream about what I’d like to get done or experience. And so, I’ve made a short list of some of the things I’d like to do/experience in 2024.

This list isn’t exhaustive, and I’ll be adding more to it as the year progresses, but here’s my starting point:

Read 52 books
Paint 12+ paintings
Try 12+ new recipes
Use up old beauty products
Take a course (art, meditation, anything!)
Buy a kiln
Go on 3+ walks a week
Meditate 5+ minutes every day
Have (at least) one nature day a month
Work on memorizing tarot meanings

I’m going to sign off now; the sun is shining and I’d like to drive to the sea and listen to the waves for a while. I hope your first day of 2024 is kind to you, and you do some things you’ve been wanting to do.

Stay cozy,

Catherine

P.S. what are you hoping to experience this year?

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