Indigo, indigoing, indigone

Instead of resolutions, try a compass word

From Ravenous Butterflies

Happy New Year’s Eve, friend!

This year, I didn’t have any resolutions. However, I did have a compass word. A “compass word” points you in the direction you want for the new year. Mine was less.

And yet, I:

• folded 400 baskets of laundry

• cooked 321 dinners

• made 700 breakfasts and lunches

• Put 10,000 miles on my car driving my daughter to…

• 4 different therapies, five if you include my own

• belayed my children a million times

• Started homeschooling my daughter

• Hosted my first literary event

• Got published at Slate and Electric Lit

• Picked up a puppy

• Found all of you! #grateful

Even though I continued to divide myself in half over and over again, I got really good at saying no.

Artwork by Erik Thor Sandburg

No. No thanks. No, thank you. I’m good. I love you, still no.

I said no until I was as no as the black new moon today.

Which brings us to the Compass word for 2025. I initially thought it would be present until I realized that was also my word for 2023. I was so present in 2023 that I presented at everything, which is how I ended up exhausted and wanting less.

(Side note: See how we keep repeating history, never learning from our mistakes? This is why we need to write everything down!)

Amy Walsh

said she lets the word find her, and if it doesn’t come, she picks listen. I’m still waiting for my word to find me, but the only one finding me right now is perimenopause.

Maybe it’s the Capricorn new moon, but everything feels like utter cringe, inauthentic baloney. Is it just me?

Honestly, if I had to come up with a compass word right now, it would be honest. We can thank the black moon for that. But is honest really for the greater good RN?

All in all, 2024 was pretty lit. You guys grew this community, and I hope it keeps growing. You always have the best wisdom and sparkle me up. Thank you!

My firstborn turned into a teenager, and it turns out he really likes hanging out with his mom!

My daughter continues to channel her feelings and all the passion of the cosmos through Art.

The kids went rock climbing in Joshua Tree, Olin started playing trumpet and crushed it at soccer, and Taegan picked up voice and piano. We all performed our various music at several holiday performances, and Taegan joined in on the Gold Town Christmas variety show Madness.

I got to be a part of Gold Town Theater’s Dirty Dancing and another epic Off the Hook Honeys dance performance with the High Costa Livin’ at the Alaska Folk Fest. Over the summer, Olin played Puck in the abbreviated version of Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Taegan also did an adorable musical theater song-dance number.

Olin discovered that if he spins the stick around his head several times, it will stand up independently. Not saying it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that we were on Native burial ground, and he might have been summoning some help from the spirits.

Oh, and we bought a boat! There’s my stalwart husband paddling to it just as a squall blew up out of nowhere (classic southeast Alaska weather).

Christmas was the best because my sister Roz and brother-in-law Nick came to town. New Year’s promises to be the same, with tarot cards, Telestrations, and fireworks, and the Aurora forecast looks quite feral.

Do you have a Compass word or any New Year’s resolutions? Let me know in the comments! Maybe your word can find someone else who needs it, or we can brainstorm one for you!