Connections

Word of the year for 2025

JETLAG and Lost Ideas

Jetlag hit at 3 am in Harajuku. As I lay wide awake, staring into the near darkness, I had a thousand brilliant thoughts – ideas for dozens of scintillating blog posts, a theme for the whole year, fantastic opening lines, lists of things to draw… As happens when in an altered state (jetlag feels like one of those), I was convinced I would remember them all and have the energy to execute on every thought once the day had dawned and I could get out of bed.

Fitful dozing followed until 6 am, by which time all my good ideas had vanished.

One word, though, remained: Connections.

If there’s a theme emerging in 2025, CONNECTIONS is as good as any to hang my hat on.

Dear Sarah Project

Take the Dear Sarah project. My editor, friend, and co-conspirator in a psychological thriller (novel), Sarah Harvey has decided to focus on her drawing in the year to come. To help support each other in our ongoing efforts to draw better/more/consistently, we have agreed to send each other a drawing a day along with an email for some context. Part correspondence (I am a fan of epistolary projects), part accountability (I definitely do better with a deadline), and part inspiration (living inside my own head is never as much fun as visiting someone else’s), this particular project is fundamentally one of connection. There’s nothing like a daily touch base to keep a friend close… If you’d like to follow along, you don’t need to do anything special. After the first week or so of daily exchanges, I’ll switch to a round-up post of our exchanges once a week or so. There’s no need to overload your in-boxes any more than necessary.

Behold the ANTINET

My fixation with the ANTINET and developing an index card-based Zettelkasten is a way to explore the serendipitous connections that arise when you collect bits and bobs of information while reading (I still love paper books, but you can collect and collate notes from any source - digital, analog, live interview, whatever) and then consider how best to file them using a cross-indexing system. Author and Zettelkaster/Antinetter Scott Scheper is one proponent who has laid out a fairly traditional strategy for developing an Antinet – check out his YouTube videos and website for the basics. You’ll know pretty quickly if this has potential for you. For me, the strange, random connections, the way you can accumulate related ideas, keep track of sources, and FIND the notes you make to yourself while reading were immediately appealing and so far, I’m loving the system so much I dragged a small box of cards with me so I could keep studying while on this trip.

TOKYO - Land of Hedgehog Cafés!!

Which brings me to this trip, a chance to spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law in Tokyo. I haven’t been here since… 1995 – a veritable lifetime. So long ago, in fact, there is no record of my earlier visit on Facebook because there was no Facebook. For that matter, there were no iPhones, digital cameras, YouTube, or Instagram. We were barely beginning to discover the joys of email. FAX machines were still the fancy new technology that had us all excited about fast communication with the folks back at home.

If you are curious to know exactly where I am, it’s Harajuku, a neighbourhood in the heart of Tokyo where Kawaii culture (cute culture that celebrates all things wide-eyed, sweet, and innocent) is alive and well. Young women in Little Bo Peep costumes, huge eyelashes, and thigh-high boots wander along Takeshita-Dori Street, cooing and oohing at the various adorable animal café options. Piglets and small fluffy dogs seem to be particularly popular, but if you’d rather sip your drink in the company of otters, hedgehogs, owls, cats, or capybaras, no problem. We plan to visit a couple later today - stay tuned. Not sure my sketching skills are up to capturing a cuddle with a hedgehog, but always game to try and see what happens.

We’ve just stopped in at Honolulu Coffee for a snack (croque majeure/grilled ham/cheese sandwich) and drinks, (green smoothie, chai latté, hot chocolate) after a long walk through the large park surrounding the Meiji Jingu shrine just up the street.

We really lucked out with the location of our digs (thanks to my brother!) and are staying at his friend’s house while she’s out of town for the first week we are here. The location could not be better: we’re 30 seconds away from the closest mi-pig coffee shop, a short walk to the shrine, and only a slightly longer stroll over to my brother’s place.

Preparations for New Years celebrations are in full gear – bazillions of people are expected to descend on various key locations in central Tokyo to usher in 2025. Not quite sure yet where we will be to experience some of that, but fear not - we are planning to stay safe and out of the crush zones.

Other connections I’m excited to explore include: connecting the dots between readings in my next course at SFU (weirdly, the first creative writing course I’ve ever taken – it’s about time, I’d say!!), revisiting places I’ve been before with family and friends, exploring new destinations and forging new connections with people I barely know as well as those I have yet to meet.

It also feels like there’s some larger connection being firmed up between my past, the present, and whatever is coming next. Not to get all philosophical, but as I spend more time here (metaphorically-speaking), the present moment seems to be expanding. Which is weird but also helps me settle into wherever it is that I find myself.

On that note… I’ll leave you here on a balmy afternoon in Tokyo, the weirdly warm winter sun filling the place with light. Time to head for the apartment, a bite to eat, and perhaps a nap or we will never make it until midnight and the start of a brand spanking new year!