This has likely been the worst year of my adult life, at least from a material perspective. Never enough money, job anxiety, getting sick all the time, not feeling creative, not seeing friends, it’s not been great. 

But despite that, it’s been perhaps the best year of my life in practice. That more than nearly anything is what’s taught me that the material isn’t what matters, it’s faith and family. Put like that, all alliterative, it feels like a real crock. I hate marketing, and it rings like marketing. But it’s true.

Roby’s what made it all so beautiful, who made it all so good. No matter the stress or the trouble, Roby was glad, growing and Good. It was the year of Roby, and I expect 2025 to be the same. 

I noted when she was born that the story, the world and my place on it rotated beneath me. I was in a story that I only just then realized was not even a prequel, it was a preamble without proper numbers, just roman numerals at the top of the page. Roby’s got the real numbers in her corner. 

I’ve got plenty of resolutions for this year but there’s really only one that matters: to live like a monk. I am given work each day by my superior, I do it without complaint or thinking too much about it. I was given work yesterday and I will be given work tomorrow.

Thank God.