magic in the woods

"Magic in the new year."

I’m big on daydreaming. It’s a habit I formed when I was a kid, sitting under my grandmother’s oaks in the small town of Kershaw, South Carolina. Reality always seemed so mundane and uninteresting. I was the type of kid who’d lose herself in a book and who’d cry when the story was over. I’d fall in love with the characters and I’d create my own stories with my Barbie dolls late into the night. I had a whole host of characters, whose names were not quite that original due to the NKOTB dolls I shared with my sisters. Donnie, Jordan, John, Joe, Danny. You get the point. 


As I aged, I couldn’t shake the stories I’d created. I’d disappear into a notebook or a laptop to escape to other worlds that I could control, especially when things seemed too crazy to reconcile. I’m part of the generation that graduated high school in 2001 and thought the world was ours only to find out, shortly after, that it most certainly was not. We watched the twin towers collapse from our freshman dorms, witnessed a major financial collapse during our first professions, as we struggled to pay off student loans. We survived the Covid pandemic and we aren’t surprised by much anymore. Aliens? Sure. Whatever. War? Yep, lived it.  Some religious nut claiming the end is near? Okay. How many times have we heard that one? 


It was easy to get caught up in it all and equally just as easy to lose ourselves to whatever vices we could find to manage the uncertainty. I’ve been around for a minute and it isn’t that I don’t care, just that there are some things that matter more to me than the latest news story and I think that has led me to how I’m choosing to approach this new year. Not full of dread and fear of what is to come but appreciating what I have. 


I’m choosing to look for the magic that already exists within and around this big, beautiful rock we call Earth. 


As it just so happened, I came across this meme by @HOMEGROWN_EDUCATION in which they list what ‘2024 is the year for’ and I’m hooked. I couldn’t agree more with these self-care ideas put forth to enrich mine and my family’s lives. 



I’ve decided to add one more to the list and it’s daily gratitude. 


Today marks my 15th month of sobriety and I’m thinking it’s time to get my head out of the clouds and do more to cultivate a life I won’t want to escape from. 


So, here’s the deal. I’m going to write about my year doing these 10 things. It will be an honest attempt at doing something other than dreaming my life away. Who knows what could happen? Could it be life changing? Perhaps. 


Come along if you’d like.