I loved this piece Ellen - it feels important to mark these number milestones even if they are, in a way, artibary - they allow those 'mound' moments - in chinese medicine there are points with Mound in the title - they are points that allow someone climb up to gain perspective on the terrain around them, how far they've come, where they are going. I hope this number brings you that.
I'm also very much of the opinion that a later resolution or plan date is best - Feb or March feels good, I'm still in a shaky liminal space right now it feels right not to shake the tree too soon! I love ENOUGH as a word for the year, mine is BREATH - return to it, the rooting, centring of it. Looking forward to journeying with you and your writing for 2025, Layla x
I love the idea of a ‘mound’ moment Layla - it feels like a much gentler way to approach this year and its big anniversary than my current sense of unfocused dread! I’m also definitely with you in that shaky liminal space at the start of the year - I’ve finally carved out some time by myself today after lots of peopling over the holidays and I can feel my whole body exhaling into it (BREATH is also an excellent word for the year) x
Thank you so much for the mention Ellen, it was an odd but very nice feeling seeing my name in that list! I really enjoy your writing and I’m excited to continue as one of your (very real) readers, whatever path you decide to take with it. So many resonances, especially with that feeling of not wanting to leave the year… I remember that when my dad died. I think the zero anniversaries must be harder, they draw attention to themselves somehow and force us to consider time passing. It’s all hard work, but I’m sure the processing we do in writing must help. Your memoir sounds great x
Thank you Sasha, and very grateful to have you as a reader. I’m so glad I discovered your Substack and your writing this year (possibly via Lindsay Johnstone?) and have just rectified a glaring but unintentional oversight and become a subscriber - though I had done so ages ago but doing some Substack housekeeping today and realised that I hadn’t (for which apologies!). Fully agree with you about the zero anniversaries, they loom large but hoping that there’s light as well as darkness to be found in living through them x
I'm loving reading your writing here Ellen :) And I'm so glad you're embarking on your big project. Also, tarot teen here! (I've been paritcularly enjoying it this Christmas period in fact). I'm sorry too that this next year is a big anniversary. It's hard to know how to Be with big numbers isn't it? We both do and don't want to honour them. We want to let them pass, but also anticipate their significance, thus creating the significance. They're somehow no different to any other year but they do invite an intentional milestone making (I keep watching each year pass since my dad died out of the blue back in 2006. I can't believe we're on the approach to twenty years and I'll soon be in a place where I have known everything there is in the world longer than I knew him. And yet somehow at this point it feels, what...ok? Yes. Ok. ) What I meant to say was it's uncanny how birth and death arrives so often at the same time, it sounds like fruitful ground to be exploring in your memoir xx
Thanks Ruth! And good to discover a fellow tarot teen :) I’m fascinated by all the different ways we create and attach significance to numbers - 25 years since the Millennium is feeling a big deal at the moment, and the 30th anniversary of Blur’s Parklife album last year also hit hard! Thinking of you on the approach to your own big anniversary next year, I’m glad that it feels ok at this point (although I suspect there’s likely to be many layers to that ‘ok’) x
I loved this piece Ellen - it feels important to mark these number milestones even if they are, in a way, artibary - they allow those 'mound' moments - in chinese medicine there are points with Mound in the title - they are points that allow someone climb up to gain perspective on the terrain around them, how far they've come, where they are going. I hope this number brings you that.
I'm also very much of the opinion that a later resolution or plan date is best - Feb or March feels good, I'm still in a shaky liminal space right now it feels right not to shake the tree too soon! I love ENOUGH as a word for the year, mine is BREATH - return to it, the rooting, centring of it. Looking forward to journeying with you and your writing for 2025, Layla x
I love the idea of a ‘mound’ moment Layla - it feels like a much gentler way to approach this year and its big anniversary than my current sense of unfocused dread! I’m also definitely with you in that shaky liminal space at the start of the year - I’ve finally carved out some time by myself today after lots of peopling over the holidays and I can feel my whole body exhaling into it (BREATH is also an excellent word for the year) x
Thank you so much for the mention Ellen, it was an odd but very nice feeling seeing my name in that list! I really enjoy your writing and I’m excited to continue as one of your (very real) readers, whatever path you decide to take with it. So many resonances, especially with that feeling of not wanting to leave the year… I remember that when my dad died. I think the zero anniversaries must be harder, they draw attention to themselves somehow and force us to consider time passing. It’s all hard work, but I’m sure the processing we do in writing must help. Your memoir sounds great x
Thank you Sasha, and very grateful to have you as a reader. I’m so glad I discovered your Substack and your writing this year (possibly via Lindsay Johnstone?) and have just rectified a glaring but unintentional oversight and become a subscriber - though I had done so ages ago but doing some Substack housekeeping today and realised that I hadn’t (for which apologies!). Fully agree with you about the zero anniversaries, they loom large but hoping that there’s light as well as darkness to be found in living through them x
I'm loving reading your writing here Ellen :) And I'm so glad you're embarking on your big project. Also, tarot teen here! (I've been paritcularly enjoying it this Christmas period in fact). I'm sorry too that this next year is a big anniversary. It's hard to know how to Be with big numbers isn't it? We both do and don't want to honour them. We want to let them pass, but also anticipate their significance, thus creating the significance. They're somehow no different to any other year but they do invite an intentional milestone making (I keep watching each year pass since my dad died out of the blue back in 2006. I can't believe we're on the approach to twenty years and I'll soon be in a place where I have known everything there is in the world longer than I knew him. And yet somehow at this point it feels, what...ok? Yes. Ok. ) What I meant to say was it's uncanny how birth and death arrives so often at the same time, it sounds like fruitful ground to be exploring in your memoir xx
Thanks Ruth! And good to discover a fellow tarot teen :) I’m fascinated by all the different ways we create and attach significance to numbers - 25 years since the Millennium is feeling a big deal at the moment, and the 30th anniversary of Blur’s Parklife album last year also hit hard! Thinking of you on the approach to your own big anniversary next year, I’m glad that it feels ok at this point (although I suspect there’s likely to be many layers to that ‘ok’) x