The Rings of 2024

Looking forward, looking back, and finding hope in the uncertainty.

Every tree not felled this year has gained another ring.

I wanted to write more today, but this is all I have that’s worth saying. Looking ahead to 2025 there is simply too much to consider, and looking back to 2024 I have too many questions that I need to answer. I am caught in the trademark lull of uncertainty that for many marks this time of year between the holidays and the new year. I have thoughts I want to synthesize into some kind of clear, concise philosophy, or at the very least an ethos which can be explained even to myself if no one else. Too many ideas are caught in the tension of their contradiction, and too many more are still but seeds, awaiting the time and conditions in which to take root. More has changed in this past year of my life then perhaps any other, even including those years where I came out or started HRT. More has given me life, more has soured my outlook, more has left me with unanswered questions this year then perhaps any other.

I’ve stared at this blank page for three days, written and archived thousands of words, and in the end this single line is all that I can bring myself to say. So, for the moment, take it, and take it as my promise that I too will grow another ring in 2025, and promise me in kind that you will try and do the same. I have big plans for this space in the coming year, or at the very least plans which are beginning to coalesce into something actionable. Plans for essays, for stories, for some honest to god journalism if I can find a way to make the budget work. More then anything, I have plans for hope. Plans for finding it in difficult places, in long nights, in the sheltered corners of the stormy days ahead. With any luck, a lot of work, and a little hope, we’ll all wear another ring upon our persons by this time next year.

See you all in 2025.

And thank you, just for being here.

-Laika Loveless