January 1st, 2025 –
On this first day of 2025 I need to reflect on the previous year and its blessings, as well as what I hope for in this new year. Sitting by the Intercoastal in South Florida listening to Coldplay.
“BOLD ACTION.”
This is not a New Year Resolution. I am not one for them anyway. A past teacher colleague said to me that it is better to have resolve than to resolve (resolution) in the 2023 new year and that stuck with me. I have resolve in who I am, where I’ve been in 2024 and where I want to go/hope to go in 2025.
2025 is just 365 days after January 1 or 2024. The slate doesn’t get wiped the moment the clock strikes midnight. The growth, change, manifestations are always still incremental.
So instead, I want to outline my vision for 2025. Redefine the short-term future of my life. Here I go.
Bold action.
on marriage
In early 2025 I am getting married to a woman that taught me how to love and to be loved. She is my beloved.
Marriage as a concept has always been the biggest sources of pain, yet yearning. So to come to this point in my life after being intensely scared of it, I am welcoming this chapter in my life. It will be exciting to have a committed partner to do life with this year and every year thereafter.
But even more exciting is the kind of person I will [need to] become to be a husband. I welcome this new man. A stronger man in mind and spirit. A man who will finally grow up. A man who will be courageous in diving into the hardest, most mysterious, most unknown piece of life that life has to offer. A man willing to live the wild life with someone else and create new life from that place.
on personal development
As mentioned above, I have aspirations for the person I am to be as a married man.
I also want to continue becoming a man of depth.
I seek to grow in wisdom, an active participant in the questioning of my assumptions, decisions, beliefs, in asking questions that aim to uncover revelations and to have the courage to ask them in the first place. I believe firmly in the importance of constantly pursuing answers by asking the right questions.
I will confront the darkness within me. Why should I postpone it? I am getting married and becoming a husband and building up to become a father, I owe it as a vow to do so.
One giant aspect of my personal life I want to confront is my anxiety around the philosophy of work and how it fits within life. How I tackle the internal tensions of the socially-“normative” forces that pull one along the path of least resistance [and away from the Joie de vivre] and the seeking of the Joys of Life in the journey to one’s fullest, truest self. As long as people remain human and the world remains the same way, my task will always be figuring out how to balance this tension.
I will also clearly define who I am which will therefore guide what I do. I identify myself as a creator and problem-solver, or an engineer in its truest definition and the definition I want us all to adopt.
I firmly believe that in an ideal world, we would have no work-life balance or separation because our work becomes our lives and our lives become our work. The reason we place immense boundaries around our work-life is because it would take over and destroy. This is participating in a work that is deteriorated, toxic, void of the humanity you and I bring to it. We are simply gears in the machine feeding into the input for output system. Of course we shy away from it the moment our shift is over.
But the work I am talking about isn’t void of our lives, but filled with it and intertwined in it. This work requires us to become fully human and fully ourselves in our humanity. Finding, or rather creating this work as an extension of who we are is what we call fulfilling work. When this occurs work doesn’t become something we separate from. Unlike the toxic work we do, human-filled work is not one that can exist without the human who created it or the work aligned with who we are.
It’s not a matter of “finding” or “defining” that I struggle with – it’s that I don’t believe the definitions I have before me, and so I continue on a wild chase of the answers to who am I, what should I do with my life, what is fulfilling work for my life?
I envision a 2025 where I take bold action in the service of my vision by believing the person I claim I am and then be that man.
on work & business
Once I master who I am by believing who I am, becoming him and never stopping, I see a path forward to the work I am to do.
2025 will bring new opportunities in business and work. I see it and believe it. This isn’t just bullshit manifestation. New opportunities come only with bold action.
My aspiration is to create systems which yield income for my newly formed-family and to embark on the journey of true self-reliance. The word “entrepreneur” comes from the French verb entreprendre, which means “to undertake” or “to do something.” I shall embark on this undertaking with utmost courage.
I will do more work aligned with my mission of co-creation, courageous creativity and all work associated with my mission of creating a more inclusive and accessible pathway to the technical engineering space. Imagine participating in the work of rewriting narratives about engineering and what it means to create in our world.
Maybe it doesn’t matter what is created, but rather the act of creating itself. The divine craft of pulling inspiration from the ether and have it manifest in physical form. That is the work of the Creator and if we are made in the image and likeness of God, I am a firm believer that creativity in this form is the deepest work of humans and humanity. If people sought their own path of creative work instead of the work defined by others, we will live in a more civil and beautiful world.
To co-create this vision, I will intentionally connect with the Muse, act on inspiration in courage and make the spiritual physically present. To share about it and inspire others to do the same is work I can do to ensure my work has impact.
some final thoughts
As I am writing this, I am listening to Coldplay’s Coloratura. It is a beautiful song which reminds me of my inner journey. I highlighted some of the lyrics that speak to me but this line is profound: “poets prophesy up in the blue, together, that’s how we’ll make it through.”
We are connected by this undercurrent of history from every human who sought the answers to the same questions of our current time. Who Am I? The connectedness to our ancestors, to the Divine and to each other is significant. It is the way to life, to our Joie de vivre. It is the way.
If there is one thing I hope to add to my life in this new year (apart from marriage) is to take the bold step in believing whatever answers I come up with to my questions.
“Coloratura” – Coldplay
Coloratura
We fell in through the clouds
And everyone before us
Is there welcoming us now
It’s the end of death and doubt
And loneliness is outColoratura
The place we dreamed about
The melodies inside yourself
And love come pouring out
And everyone’s allowed
We’re feathered by the crowdAnd up there in the heavens
Galileo and those pining for the moon
Know it’s a slow burn
Through Pioneer and Helix
Oumamama, Heliopause, and Neptune
We’re a slow-burning tune
But we’ll get thereSo for now
In this crazy world, I do
I just want youIn the end, it’s all about
The love you’re sending outAnd up there in the heavens
The explorers who’ve all gathered by balloon
Saw the world turn
Through Voyager, Callisto, Calliope
Betelgeuse, the neon moons
We’re a slow-burning tune
But we’ll touch down soonSo will you
And in this crazy world, I do
I just want youAnd up there in the heavens
Galileo saw reflections of us too
Pluribus unum, unus mundus
And all the satellites imbue
The purple, yellow, green, red, orange and the blue
Oh, it’s a crazy world, it’s true
Sing it outAnd in this crazy world, I do
I just want
In this crazy world, it’s true
I just want youPoets prophesy up in the blue
Together, that’s how we’ll make it through
I am grateful for you. See you next year!