Welcome 2023!

You know, so often I get to the end of a year and envision the coming year as a loop. I've reached the end of a circle and I'm starting back over at the beginning. Something different happened to me this year. 
As I looked at Christmas, excited to see my wife open her gift (a blanket with Samantha and Katie from my novel on it. She says it's her favorite gift ever!) I peeked over the horizon at the quickly approaching 2023. It was time to cross that line again, start at the beginning of the loop. Time to reflect on everything I didn't quite get done and perhaps even worry about how many more chances I'll get to round this loop again.

But this year, even if it was just for a brief moment, something looked different. 2023 didn't appear to me as the same starting line I'd left off from in 2022, it didn't look like the beginning of the same loop. Instead... I saw a line. A straight path. Not a curved ring, not a snake eating its tail, not an endless round... I saw a line.

In that brief moment (which I am attempting to breathe life back into by writing this very post) I saw possibility. I saw hope. But mostly I saw something... something different. I've been spinning my wheels (an apropos metaphor I suppose) for a while when it comes to seizing my dreams, but on the back half of 2022 I took real, measurable steps toward accomplishing it. Instead of look at at 2023 and seeing the point I needed to start over again at, I saw a continuation. I saw... the next day. The day after today wasn't looking like something separate, a new continuum to exist on. It was a continuation of the hard work I've put in.

I've said it many times before, but there are big things on the horizon for The Paladin. I'm confident. The wheels are already in motion. This time I'm actually looking at tangible evidence. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm a little scared, to be honest. But I'm happy. I'm happy that 2023 doesn't feel like something completely separate from 2022. It feels like the next day.

Until I see you again,

Be Excellent to Each Other