Holding onto hope
Welcoming the new year
Hello friends,
Here we stand on the cusp of a new year.
In my last newsletter, I discovered I had inadvertently started a series with my post titles - all ‘holding’ in some way. So I thought I might continue that to close out 2022, and took a moment to reflect on what feels important to hold onto.
2022 has been a handful, to say the least. As we anticipate the coming year, what I’m finding most inspiring is looking for tendrils of hope wherever they happen to appear.
Sometimes that it is in the most surprising places - and when it happens to feel particularly magical.
What’s New
The latest from Where The Roses Bloom:
The selvage: a poem about finding hope in the midst of loss
Some Odds and Ends (instalments 10 & 11) from this time last year
And from the archive:
How I’m Doing
Despite two rounds of flight cancellations (one due to illness, one due to airline technical malfunction), third time was the charm!
We felt very lucky to be able to spend the holidays with family - although we didn’t have quite the Christmas we had envisioned. We all came down with norovirus on Christmas Eve and spent most of Christmas Day in bed (with ginger ale and crackers for supper), which also knocked out the end of Hanukkah. (Zach made three gorgeous loaves of Challah, which unfortunately none of us could bear to eat under the circumstances.)
Fortunately New Year’s Eve is looking much healthier!
Good Art Friends
Just another reminder that you can catch Theatre Re’s production of The Nature of Forgetting at Shoreditch Town Hall in London from 18-22 January, and also on a UK tour. (Tickets available here!)
I imagine I will get many more opportunities to sing the praises of Davóne Tines. He’s an artist of enormous talent and integrity, and it will surprise exactly no one who has met or sung with him that he was picked as one of the New York Times’s Breakout Stars of 2022. If you haven’t checked out his work already, I really recommend doing so.
If you need a little pick-me-up going into the new year, to make you feel inspired and ready to grab life with both hands, check out this wonderful performance of Zak Edwards singing ‘Everybody Says Don’t.’ This will have you walking out the door in the morning with a new pep in your step.
Wishing you a happy new year, and wonderful 2023!
For now,
Alli
(Photo by Oskars Sylwan on Unsplash)