It’s been two years
and a year in review
I started this substack two years ago with the intention of publishing a bunch of my poems and parts of a book I started to write in 2020 during the lockdown.
So many things blocked my goals including laziness and lack of drive, fear of judgement and hurting others, privacy concerns, mental health issues and recovery, shifting priorities, a major car accident in 2024, and a bad foot injury in 2025.
In the meantime I had the chance to join a writing group [Caravan Writers Collective] and an astrology community [Loving the Dark Parts] here on substack. If it weren’t for these two wonderful communities I probably would have deleted this account.
This year is a bit of a blur as I was still recovering from a concussion and medication withdrawal for the first half of the year, and feeling like my whole brain was replaced sometime in the second half.
Here’s a couple of lists to help me remember what happened:
The Good Stuff
-Dedicated myself to my Buddhist practice under the guidance of a teacher
-Bought a new car!
-Returned to the Camino to walk up the coast of Spain
-Found an amazing therapist who is committed to helping me feel better
-Felt my brain come back online after two years of meds and withdrawal
-Allowed in a tiny bit of romantic sweetness to smooth over the most recent cracks in my heart
-Deactivated my main social accounts for privacy reasons (my life is off limits to vampires and voyeurs)
-Quietly acknowledged (and celebrated) menopause with my naturopath of 15 years
-Discovered an amazing and healing sound bath not far from my house
-Took a quick road trip to Montreal to see McCartney!
-Worked on these shows:
—The Handmaid’s Tale
—Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
—The Boys
—Finding Her Edge
—Law and Order Toronto
—The Greatest
—Being Heumann (Radical)
—I Will Find You (where I found myself face to face with Milo Ventimiglia - yes, I was a bit star struck!)
—The Westies
—Reacher
O-T (Luke) was so close to me!
The Challenges
-Started the year with a friend breakup 💔
-Started a new university course then had to drop it for many reasons
-Badly injured my foot in Spain
-Lost one of my office jobs the day after returning home from the Camino (“budgetary reasons”)
-Had to cancel a summer road trip due to PTSD from the car accident in 2024
-Had to break up with yet another “lifelong” friend (I’m not allowing anyone to disrespect me anymore!)
-Got dumped by one of my therapists (not the amazing one mentioned before) because she’s bad at her job
-Attended two funerals for distant family members 😢
-Another married man was sent to test me, and this time I think I passed (I value our friendship)!
Plans for 2026:
Donate and sell most of my things to prep for retirement
Vietnam in February!
My kid turns 20 in April!
Maybe try The Artist’s Way again? My creative mind is begging to be acknowledged
Read more books!
I’m currently taking a break from BG work but thinking about signing up to new agents for spring and summer bookings
Use up holidays by June (another Camino? Plum Village?)
Birthday in Mexico/ Central America with my bday bud
More healing, more forgiving, more living
Dating? Maybe I will finally be ready? I have learned discernment and self value
MUSIC
Let me know what your plans are for 2026. I would love to connect.