More than a few folks are pointing out that 2025 should be the year of the website.
You should have a website *you* control, not just a social media presence you can get kicked off of at any moment by the next billionaire who buys it.
Because it will happen.
I left what Twitter became in November 2024. I’ve been enjoying Bluesky, but it’s having problems scaling up into millions of users. (I was in the 800,000s when I joined, thanks to a friend giving me his invite code.)
I’ve had this website in several versions since 2012. Hopefully I’ll have it for many more years.
My word for 2025 and the next few years, one word of many, is ‘Resilience’. In my art, my writing, and my life.
This 160+ year old cottonwood tree has existed in the Animas Valley of NW New Mexico. It has survived drought, flood, fires, settlers, and generations of middle school kids. It is not immortal…but it is resilient.
My approach to 2025 at this stage is “cautious optimism”. In some ways, 2024 was a good year for me. It was productive, I learned new skills and got better at old ones, so I approach 2025 confident that I’m growing in command of my chosen craft.
OTOH, I see places I care about under challenge from those who *don’t* care, or whose idea of “caring” is so far removed from mine that I don’t recognise it as such.
Down here where I live, it’s an election year for our Commonwealth government. I don’t feel very hopeful about that. I fear that the blockers and dismantlers are feeling their oats, while the present government (that started out with such hope and ambition) seems to have given up altogether.
So, good luck with your new administration, American friends – and spare a thought for us Down Under when the time comes.
I don’t do “resolutions”, but I’m starting this year with a firm intention to create, and to keep on making spaces for other people to create and to appreciate.
Resilience is a good word to light the way. I’m getting my resilience aired and pressed, ready for the upcoming year.
Happy New Year to you, Filigree, and also to my Fellow Followers.