the alternative resolutions list
new year, same good you
There have been a lot of year-end round-ups flying around lately; people sharing small collections of photographs that have marked their 2024. Book releases and birthdays and mountain ranges and babies; good, big things.
A few weeks ago I did something out of character. I started to plot out the year ahead - the kind of thing that might encourage a resolution or two - but instead made a list of everything that I was proud of, or had managed to do, in 2024.
In some ways it was a splashy old year - I showed the Queen around an exhibition of my work; I went on book tour; I finished one manuscript and started another - but when I boiled it down the thing I was most chuffed with was beginning treatment and pursuing therapy to fix my broken brain. I’ve not written about this much yet, it’s all still very present, but last year was among the most transformative and difficult and glinting I’ve known. I didn’t really know how to sum that up in 10 little photographs on Instagram.
There were times last year when I really struggled to write this newsletter because, well, it was pretty difficult to savour when everything felt a bit shit. I felt at best hypocritical and at worst fraudulent. I took a break (thank you, ever-supportive subscribers, for bearing with me during this), only to come back without the even footing I’d hoped for.
Slowly, I managed to make enough space to reacquaint myself with the spirit I’d started savour in: to encourage people to see things a little differently, to notice the good and the small, the often overlooked.
I suppose that’s the spirit behind these not-really resolutions, so much as small prods in the direction of making life shine a little brighter. January doesn’t have to be bleak; I actually find it quite beautiful at times. But it has a bad rep and we’re about to pass the Christmas tree over to be composted and, well, if there were ever a good time for a list like this, it’s now.
If you’re able to make extra food, do. Either freeze the leftovers, or give them away on Olio, or eat them for lunch tomorrow. Your future self will be so grateful.