🎉 A Moment, a Celebration

Can I be honest with you, dear reader? I didn't think I'd have much to say today.

I thought about not saying anything, actually. It'd be fine if I didn't—I certainly don't have a distribution list so large, a fan base so loyal, that I'd have people reaching out in droves to check in and see where my Tuesday post was.

But I do know that some would notice, and more importantly, I know that I would notice. I've had renewed energy here lately, and I'm not willing to slip into the "I'll just miss this one time and then pick it back up next time" trap. My Day One journal reminds me that a year ago at this time, I had gone six weeks without a post, and I was feeling some kind of way about it. I'm tellin' ya, regularly reviewing journal entries from previous years is a powerful way to see trends, growth, and regression.

For today, I did have a plan on what to post: a continuation of the "Life Is" series, which has a handful of posted entries and many a draft knocking around my Obsidian vault. I even had the post timeline sketched out. Monday, a holiday, would be perfect. Spend time with the family, do a bit of prep for the week to come, and use pockets in the day to get everything ready for the scheduled weekly post.

But things changed. It is, for me, the Year of Focus. One instantiation of that would be applying all my determination and resolve into staying focused on things like drafting and posting timelines. But this theme isn't just about tuning out distractions and getting the task at hand done. It's also about realizing that there are situations where various pieces of my identity can and should shine. That there are times to let an identity subset by the focus, even when unplanned.

And yesterday, as the sun shone and temp rose to 60, I put aside cares of a false spring and soaked up every ray I could get. I spent time on the patio. I went with the family to two local parks, walking miles in various parts of our richly diverse neighborhood. I had long conversations with each of my boys, with Miles giving a breathless update while walking to breakfast on his thoughts on how we should approach the various monsters we're fighting in Zelda, and Kai piecing together the significance of President's Day as it relates to Black History Month and the current state of society and occupants of the White House.

Back home, I fiddled around with my music setup and prepared some things to record in the coming days. I read a little and wrote a little, doing neither as much as I would like, but enough that I feel good about having done each of them. I held my aging dog and gave him gratifying pats even as he turned my ball of laundry into his bespoke bed.

I did much, and yet not much at all.

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My mind has been everywhere lately, pulled in all directions from the challenges near and far. I'm swinging from branch to branch while the rainforest is clear-cut behind me.

And so, in moments when I can instead swing to the top of the canopy and take in the everything around me, I will celebrate that, even if it means today's post isn't what I intended.

Because it turns out I did have something to say to you today. The value of a blog thematically geared such as this one is that I can justify any number of things under its vast umbrella. File this one under celebrations. File this one under reflections of a flawed human trying to do his best, eternally unsure if he can.

File this one under moments.

Yours, in a Temporary Peace Worth Noting,

-Rye