Gentle Tools for Growth in the New Year

A few years ago I felt like my life would never change.

It was a year or so into COVID. I’d been working the same job for years, spending evenings and weekends scratching away at figuring what I actually love and how to grow into it.

But no matter how much changed inside me, the external shape of my days seemed locked in an unbreakable rut.

Fast forward to this year.

In the last 18 months I’ve been laid off, published a book, got a new job, had a son, and watched my poetry reach exponentially more people than ever before.

I think we often overestimate how much life is supposed to change in a year.

But our imaginations can hardly grasp how much our lives will change over the course of a decade—both with our conscious effort and regardless of it.

That’s why the New Year’s push to “transform your life” eventually starts to feel futile.

It doesn’t work like that.

The sort of change we’re actually longing for feels a lot more like Richard Rohr’s observation about true growth. That it’s not just transcending the season we’re in. It’s transcending and including every season we’ve lived, every version of us we’ve been.

In my experience that’s seasonal work. It won’t be rushed.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a few things I’ve created that can accompany you in that process.

They won’t transform your life overnight.

But they might offer you a little bit of camaraderie and insight to take the next small, courageous step deeper into your own belonging.