This Start to 2025 is Ruining my Word...

Storytime with Kate

ugh yall.

the new year is well underway and I'm not resonating with my word of the year and it already feels... eww.

The subject and tagline of this email are much more dramatic than I actually feel, but the drama of it all helps me just get out the gunk. 

My word of this year is *playful*.

You got Ruby's email last week about how picking a word every year as ruined her life as she thought she knew it?

Well right now, this start to 2025 is ruining my word!

And I'm not even going to mention the news or global affairs..................... *I might*

- On the first day of the year I made out with someone new. (The movie kind on the street after the first date at my car and someone who drove by shouted "get a room!" It was extremely rom-com)

- On the 5th day of the New Year I ran into an old Music Business friend that I've been dying to see!

- On the 15th day of the New Year I went to a trampoline park with a 5 year old friend of mine (and her mom who I've also been friends with for 15 years).

- On the 17th day of the New Year I learned that I can do 30 pull ups with 30 second rest intervals!! (2 years ago I couldn't do ONE pull up!)

- On the 20th day of the New Year I learned that I can do 100 push ups (also with 30 second rest intervals between each 10! - I'm really surprising myself in the gym these days - I thought I could maaaybe do 15.)

And while those things all sound playful...

- I haven't heard from that person since because... I don't know why.

- Why does everything in the Music Business have to start 30 minutes away from my house at 9pm when I'm already in bed?!?!

- While I was visiting this friend, her dog ate a couple tablespoons of coffee beans that I brought and he had to go to the emergency vet! Winston!!

- My lats were incredibly sore.

- I have absolutely overdone it in the pushup department and my triceps are waking me up in the night to tell me all about it... 

But in 2023, my word was Clarity and life was like, "welcome to the mud my darling."

In 2024 it was Fortify and life was like, "your castle is regularly being invaded and taken over..."

And 2025 is currently like, "dude. this shit is serious."

But isn't that the thing?

- I wouldn't have any need for clarity if everything already felt obvious.

- I wouldn't have been drawn to the idea of fortifying my life's castle walls if I didn't already have the sense that they were being invaded.

- And I wouldn't feel drawn to playfulness if I didn't already have a sense that I might be taking some things a little more seriously than I need to. 

There's a reason that there's darkness and light. There's a reason there's good and bad. There's a reason we name the binaries...

Because everything is a spectrum. Because there is always both, and because there is both, there is always the in-between.

And as hard as it can seem, there's necessity to both.

Because even if a bunch of old, lonely, involuntary celibate, rich, cowardly, greedy, evil white men say that there are only two genders, you and me know that's not true. Because we're more evolved than that. And because we're not cowards. And because we love people. 

Even if you're angry as hell, scared, and sad, you are also so full of love (which is yours to feel too!) for humanity otherwise you'd be completely indifferent to it all.

Even though that same group of men in the first 23 days of this year are trying to mandate that woman are required to ask permission from their husbands for access to birth control, I truly can't help but laugh at them... 

Even though they have the upmost power on the globe... they still can't tell me what to believe, or who to love, or that I need to ask a man for permission to do... anything. It's laughable.

It's like they're getting on a global stage and are trying to convince us they're all real like Santa, that they're telling us the truth like Pinocchio, and that they're coming to save us all like Judas.

But you and me, we've read those stories. We know the fables. We know the point of them all: Santa's here to show us how to be good to each other and create magic amongst us. Pinocchio discovers his own courage and integrity, and with that, saves Geppetto's life. And Judas chose the side of the oppressive Roman Empire over the love-ethic of Jesus... and then he took his life when he realized his mistake. (You don't have to be Christian to get the point of the parable...)

When I write it all down, there's been playfulness every step of the way for me in the last 23 days. There's also been pain. That pain requires some care, some attention, some nurturing.

Keep playing, keep tending to the joy and the consequences.

Keep loving, keep tending to the butterflies and grief.

Keep living, keep tending to the darkness and the light.

Keep showing up, keep tending to the rejections and the connections.

I see you. I love you. You’re Doing Great. 
Kate

PS The 2025 Self Study Program us upon us! We're only taking 15 people in this year's cohort, and I want you to be the first to know! Reply to this email for an exclusive discount to join. Ruby and I don't generally discount but... we're playing this year!