Happy New Year to everyone! The end of 2020 has been a wild ride for Tara and I because we have been packing and preparing for a big move and a new chapter in our lives. With the holidays, finishing school, and a new calendar year I am very excited about improving on my habits and for some new experiences.
Listen 🎧
For those that read my post on ‘Yearly Themes’ a few weeks ago I had mentioned that I learned about this process from the Cortex podcast. A few days later they posted their episode talking about 2021 themes and I think it is worth a listen. Even if you don’t have anything prepared for the first day of the year it is still never too late to slow down and think about how to pivot your life in a direction you desire. We are constantly moving in and out of different seasons in our lives.
Read + Watch 📚🎞
One of my favorite parts of December is all the ‘Best of the Year’ lists that get posted. For books, here are my two favorites: Ryan Holiday, Kottke.org (this link will provide many great lists to look at.) + Bonus link that is entirely centered on book design for the last year.
A social network I got really into this year, Letterboxd, has many great lists for films to watch. One of the crew members curated a list of the top-rated films from all the members of Letterboxd for release in 2020. Two of the films I enjoyed from this list are: Sound of Metal and Wolfwalkers. One 2020 film that I am really looking forward to watching is Nomadland. I’m still thinking about what I am going to consider the best film of 2020, but I think the best film I watched in 2020 was, A Hidden Life.
One last read I recommend for those interested in the why behind learning history and how it can help us be better citizens. “The aim of history class isn’t to get students to love or loathe their country. It’s to prepare them to live in it.”
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Tara and I are about to start a new part of our life in Austin, Texas. We are going to miss the Pacific Northwest more than we can describe with words. Our family, the mountains, friends, home, etc. However, we are excited to see what life has to offer for us going forward.
I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to the rest of winter and a new year. If in the next few weeks you find that life is just as hard as it has been or not going the way you thought it would in “2021”, don’t be discouraged. No matter how we define the time we are in, life will always bring us opportunities to adapt and change. How we respond to those opportunities is what defines us.
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” -Marcus Aurelius
keegan cherry 🟠 