Much was memorable about 2022, and a bunch of it was a blur. In the past two weeks, I've spent time with most of the people I love most in the world and my heart is full from it. A few years ago a therapist told me that I had two options when it came to my emotions: I could dull everything, or I could feel both great joy and great pain. I chose the yin with the yang.
Most of my close relationships are the best they've ever been, and I'm beginning to make friends in NC, but I also cried more and had the most severe depressive episode in 8 years during 2022.
Our apartment flooded on Christmas Eve due to a frozen burst pipe, but a loan officer also said we're ready to buy a house.
The prison abolition collective I volunteer with suffered a painful breach of trust and values behind the scenes due to some deceptions of the founders on Jan 1. 2022, but I made friends with many wonderful fellow volunteers as we kept the collective going through that crisis. I've become an organizer of the reimagined project and I am really proud of taking part in nourishing that community into something that can thrive and change worlds.
I watched a lot of TV and remember very little of it, but I read 58 books in a year and some of them will impact my life forever. The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (my crush of the year) forever altered the way I'll conceptualize of death and a possible afterlife. Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski forever changed my relationship with sex and sex education/culture in a very positive way (check out the Netflix mini series or the podcast if reading isn't your main thing). Other notables included...
Novels: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford, Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba (for fans of Studio Ghibli), The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb (for a story that swept me away), and The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (for its structure and perspective).
Graphic Novels: Brian Blomerth's Mycelium Wassonii (for the artwork and the zeitgeist), Excuse Me by Liana Finck (for being a genius), Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli (for its structure), The World of Edena by Moebius (everything a graphic novel should be, at every level; a true epic), and Snow, Glass, Apples by Colleen Doran (for artwork and its incredible spin on such a familiar story).
Nonfiction: Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay (as relevant as ever).
In 2022, I was lucky to get to visit four places I hadn't explored before. For our 10 year wedding anniversary in January 2022, Jonas and I drove to Asheville, NC. Some of the things we hoped to see were closed, but we had a delicious dinner at Holeman and Finch, watched the Studio Ghibli movie Belle in the theater, and visited the very cool bookstore/cafe Battery Park Book Exchange. We left early so as not to get snowed in, but poor Jonas drove down the mountain in blizzard conditions. On summer break, we went to Brevard, NC with Ishmael and Ira and hiked to waterfalls, drank coffee at the hotel (the highlight for the boys), ate fresh peaches from the roadside, and searched for the famous albino squirrels (which we didn't see). Then I took a girls trip with my mom and sisters to Charleston, SC, which I'd been to as a toddler, but had no memories of. Most of our party got a stomach bug, but we still had a wonderful time learning about architectural history, eating BBQ, and listening to Song Exploder. In the fall, Jonas and I and the boys visited my uncles at their home in Orient, Long Island. We walked throughout their neighborhood, I ate a delicious lobster roll at their favorite restaurant, and we got to try playing Uncle Michael's theremin! We don't have any concrete travel plans for 2023, but I'd like to visit the Florida Keys and Cuba.
I made a little progress on my previously set goals/hopes for 2022. One thing I got better at that wasn't planned was cooking Chinese food! In 2023 I'd like to make progress on buying a home and continue a writing project I'm working on. I would like to continue learning about and serving my community with North Durham Mutual Aid, find a therapist, and maybe practice singing?
Finally, here's a recap of what I blogged about in 2022: female somatic energy, anti-vanity, suicide, housing amidst poverty, and holiday boundaries.
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