I changed my mind.
So I thought my word of 2026 would be EMERGE. But the more I thought about it, the more that didn't feel quite right. Emerge carries a sense of coming out, a revealing, a surfacing, an appearing. As if I’d been in hiding but was now stepping into the light. And that didn’t feel quite right.
Reflecting on 2025 and visioning 2026 with Andrea Scher in her Manifest 2026 Zoom today with an incredible group of women, I changed my mind. And what kept coming to me was ….
READY.
As in, LET’S GO 2026.
Nerves, wonder, curiosity? Yep, still there. But ready for it.
Fear of failure? Almost always. But ready for that, too.
New adventures, offerings and attempts at connecting? Hell yeah, READY for it!
Hat/Tip to my friend Maura who reminded me of this section in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and here’s to reaching for our figs, making choices and being READY to dive in this year!
Happy New Year! 🎉
Emerge
Still in flux, but I think that’s going to be my word of year for 2026. More on that if I choose it. My thoughts are still emerging on that one. 😉
What’s yours? I’d love to know in the comments below!
And … leave a review for Gather Connect Create on Apple Podcasts (and then send me an email to let me know) and I’ll put your name in a drawing for a BEAUTIFUL (and now sold out) We Gather Again 2026 calendar from Jen Bloomer’s Radici Studios. I ordered one for myself earlier this year and one to give away to someone in the Gather Connect Create Community. Could that be YOU?
And bonus, if you leave your word AND a review of Gather Connect Create on Apple Podcasts - you’ll be entered twice! I’ll draw names on January 1st and pop it in the mail on January 2nd!
Wipiiwos: /ˈwɪp-ee-wɪz/ (also /ˈwɪp-ee-woʊz/ )
I made a new word! Well, an acronym, really.
wipiiwos
/ˈwɪp-ee-wɪz/ (also /ˈwɪp-ee-woʊz/ )
noun
plural: wipiiwoses or wipiiwos (informal)
Definition:
An acronym meaning What I’d Post If I Were On Socials — used to describe thoughts, observations, photos, ideas, or moments that feel “post-worthy,” even when one is intentionally not participating in social media.
I may start posting these wipiiwoses here when I have them. But more likely in my newsletters. Are you signed up yet?
Year of Gathering
Two different women in my life sent me this image. I feel seen. Thank you. Let it be the year of gathering! (and if you are local to Milwaukee and want to gather, are you on my list?), I’ve got so many ideas in the works!
Have you seen this yet?
This documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, is everything you’d expect a documentary about the life (and death) of poet Andrea Gibson would be. Incredible. Honest. Moving. Inspiring. And that song. Wow. Just wow.
IYKYK
A new start. A fresh beginning. Blank pages. Stories. Lessons learned. Reflections. Ideas. Terrible, terrible writing. A safe space. Maybe a few gems (or not). Quotes. Lists. Dreams. Visions. Defeats. Acceptance. A-HAs. Reminders. Poems, Forgiveness. Love. So much happens between these pages.
rainbow connection
My daughter and I have been connecting on rainbow walks lately. We call it out as we see it. And hold hands along the way.
“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.”
~ ALICE WATERS
what I’d post if I were on instagram
My relationship to my camera phone is changing.
Barbara Kruger, an American conceptual artist and collagist, recently on display in Bilbao at the Guggenheim Museum
It’s a strange thing not being on the socials anymore (for now anyway, but for the foreseeable future, I think). I find my relationship to my camera phone is changing. For one, I’m not taking as many pictures.
For what?
If I don’t take a picture and post, did it still happen? If a tree falls …
So without a home for some of these pictures I’ve been snapping, they sit idly in my phone, where I’m poised to forget why I took them or what inspired me in the first place. So let me post a few here. What I might have otherwise shared. To remind myself I am moving through days, finding inspiration in the world and words around me.
(clockwise from top left)
Seen on a car on a walk in my neighborhood.
Can’t remember where I saw this. h/t to whoever copied this out from Austin Kleon.
Another piece from Barbara Kruger
GREAT bathroom sign spotted at Mothers (GET THERE in Bayview if you live locally!)
Quote from Austin Kleon again - I’m REALLY into his three books of late.
Whoever writes the horoscope for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is on fire!
AI does not write these. I do.
My mother taught me much of what I know of writing.
My mom has always been an English teacher. She took a few years out to manage a billing office for anesthesiologist, but I’m quite sure her heart was in the classroom, even then. She taught me much of what I know of writing. One of the biggest lessons?
Write in threes.
But guess who else has been programmed to write in threes?
ChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. Grok. Perplexity. Jasper. You name him. (of course it’s a him).
I was mortified when I googled ‘how to tell AI writing’ and saw that the two dead giveaways are the threes and the em dash. Damn it if the way I write — or speak for that matter — doesn’t come out sounding like a chatbot.
But I swear this is me. This is how I write. This is what I know.
(see?)
I hope you know me well enough to know that.
gathering thoughts here
Cheers to writing again in my own space.
I’d like to start writing again. Sharing thoughts, sharing reflections, putting real ideas on the page somewhere. But NOT in 140 characters or less, not under captions of images that evaporate after a swipe, and not on yet another platform that I need to promote or plug on the daily. I like that this space right here is MINE. So I’m going to claim it. And write right here. Often? I don’t know yet. But with enough regularity that it’s worth coming back from time to time, if you’re interested. But mostly, and once again, this space is for me. Cheers!