Editorial update: Gaby Gloria, The Thing’s founding editor, will be stepping down for a while to focus on her last semester of university. From henceforth until further notice, Kiana, the Musings section editor, will be overseeing all editorial operations of the site.
Happy new year, Thingamabobs! Welcome to a new theme.
After a year littered with victories and defeats from all fronts, here is another year walking through our doors. The year 2017 does not need, or even feel the need, to knock. This year knows that it will be welcomed in our homes no matter what.
Last year, we have been heartbroken one too many times, more than we are willing to admit. There were many moments when we were exhausted and when we just wanted to lay down in the dark for a while and cry. To this, 2017 sighs and says, “Okay. But remember your victories as much as you remember and mourn your defeats and losses.” This is what we will try to look at and explore for our theme, MOVING FORWARD. We have been putting off publishing content in the site for months since we felt pressed for time, and we didn’t want to throw ideas in the air prematurely. Now it seems that the new year brought with it a sense of hopefulness, urging us to move forward. *wink wink*
Before the new year dawned I took myself to a cliff that overlooks a wide portion of the ocean. My friends beckoned for me to jump twenty feet above sea level (!!! crazy, right?) and I was terrified to my wits that I couldn't dare do it. Several deep breaths and a 5-minute trek to a steep slippery cliff-ish later, I found a height that I could manage, fourteen-feet above sea level. I had to ask a friend to count 1 to 10 backwards and in the last 2 seconds I hurled myself into a nothingness filled with oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Then I was back on the surface, buoyancy immediate, a goat flailing about trying to find solid ground.
This month we’re talking movement and action, like hope, since "hope calls for action" and "action is impossible without hope." Those were the words of Rebecca Solnit in her book Hope In The Dark where she also highlights the importance of recognizing victories, extending it as a tool to propel us to action. This is one important underlying idea behind the theme.
We’re also talking growth and healing—stories of maybe’s, yesses or no’s, could have been’s, almosts, and whatnots. And since it is so easy to get caught up in the barrage of these words whose sound and cacophony ring through our ears and reverberate through the walls of cyberspace, we’re also honoring the silence and quiet, the steel-toed resilience that presents itself everyday—the reason why we look at people in the eye when talking, or why we look up, almost too deliberately, at the sky or the stars. Moving forward does not mean barreling through iron-clad doors at all times or throwing oneself off cliffs. It can be as mundane as waking up, making sure there is enough water in our bodies, trying to be kind always, but especially so when the easiest default to a situation is rudeness or meanness. That which is human, ever lurking, and that which gleams in the dark and sparkles when a light hits its surface.
We’re looking forward to reading your ideas, entries, and stories. Here are some information for new/old contributors alike, as well as the desired submissions format: http://bit.ly/2ivsNyc Then you can send everything to thethingonline [@] gmail [dot] com.
Thank you for being here, and enjoy the month ahead.
Love + light,
Kiana
Cover art by Jao San Pedro
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