2023. A year of growth and gratitude.

2022. What can I say? The last two months have been a struggle. Some days I feel like I am holding onto a thread.

I hated swimming. Then three years ago, I forced myself to learn …

Today is a painful reminder that democracy is fragile.

Remember when I said I hope 2020 won’t be a fucking ratty year in the Year of the Rat because of some virus from China? Yea, that happened. Global pandemic. It's a shitty, ratty year. A lost year, or a year of being lost.

Another year, another dollar. It’s the year of the rat, and I am hoping this year will be more of the smart, intellectual kind of rat, rather than the plague kind.

I finished the Candidate and Campaign Training by LGBTQ Victory Institute today.

Yesterday, I completed my first class on Buddhism online, that is Buddhism Through Its Scriptures via Harvard University / EDX. Today is the last day. I took some time this weekend to hunker down and write my final short essay of my interpretation of a Zen visual parable of a monkey reaching out for the full moon. It is finished.

Sangpuy is a breath of fresh air. His music is a mesmerizing mix of Pinuyuma melodies and modern electronic and orchestral music, celebrating a language he clearly loves. I found it inspiring and original.

This is Paradise: Stories, a beautifully written debut collection of short stories by Kristiana Kahakauwila… It was an easy read and I highly recommend it, if you’re looking to understand Hawai’i from a local perspective, beyond grass skirts and piña coladas.

I’m not big on new-year resolutions, but I maintain a vision board during the year… It has kept me focused and I have been pretty good at ticking off goals and milestones for the last four years or so.