notes & news, January 2025

news & notes

14 January 2025

First entry of the year

I am very lucky.

Over Christmas I reconnected with my siblings and their mother. While I think the decade apart was good for us (at least in part), it’s mad to realise that all we needed was one open conversation. Instead of talking, we made assumptions about the others, came to our conclusions and lost our connection. There was a time of anger, but a year or two into the separation, a simple conversation, listening to what was going on in the other’s mind, could have resolved this.

I wonder whether this keeps us apart: Making assumptions, guessing what the other thinks, basing our decisions on what we believe we know. What would become possible if we allowed for a conversation, allowed each other to find the words, the questions, even the drawing of lines that might be needed to connect or stay connected? Are our assumptions a reason why we fail to come together, not just in families but also in neighbourhoods, communities, countries and internationally?

I wonder how we can learn to ask questions when something bothers us, how we can draw our lines and yet, open doors.

Hm. This needs more thinking.

Anyway, a consequence of reconnecting to my siblings is that I am once again on Usedom and privileged to be at the sea every day. I missed the ocean.

Presently I have two foci, which is never a good idea. One is to get a handle on social media, in particular Bluesky. Today, I will publish a playbook for change #pbfc, and later today I will use it to make some suggestions for how the inauguration could be spoiled for T & Co.

It’s funny, this is the first time that I seriously engage on social media, and I guess if you’ve been doing this for years, you can take a look at my posts and have a laugh. It’s all there: the not being able to stop posting, the doing a thread and forgetting to mark it as such, the figuring out which posts might work, dealing with fake accounts, finding people to connect to, unfollowing those that weren’t such a good choice and all the rest.

My other focus is to complete book 3/2.
What makes working on this part strange is that in the story I’m back in December and by tomorrow I’ll probably be in the middle of Christmas — again.

The Christmas chapter has quite a history of growing over a long period of time and occasionally in unlikely times and places.

mapped out over Christmas 2021/2
transcript of notes over Christmas 2022
first draft over Easter 2023
research for Prague bits December 2023
edit/read Christmas Eve 2023
selected scenes read and published on 24/25 December 2024
January 2025, final edits and completion, at the location where I reconnected over Christmas with my siblings. So fitting.

There were other writing/editing times, but these are the most significant.

A word on the New Year.

I’m optimistic. There is an abundance of ideas, books to complete, stories to invent, challenges to issue, making my work known, connecting to allies for our future and quite a bit more.

Of course, this also needs to translate into earnings, not just for myself but also to make the projects which were developed in the various books happen.

I love my work, I love to challenge, shape and rethink. That’s a privilege and a joy. For me it also occasionally means that I lose sight of myself. Therefore strengthening my body, fortifying myself against overwork, taking more steps to make room for actual living (as opposed to constantly doing the work I love) is something I intent to get very good at this year. I know it will take time. I know I will go through some more trial and error. But again, I’m optimistic.

One thing I hope for is to find and connect to people with whom, to quote book 3/1, shaping: ‘I can have this kind of conversation where two people explore a subject together, both as curious, free, open and excited as the other, neither having to prove or contradict anything.’

I’ll leave it at this for today. Presently I’m more likely to post on Bluesky: @charliealiceraya.bsky.social

There is an interesting series of posts on the topic: non-binary. It starts with two self-portraits of me, one from 2008, the other from 2024. If you scroll down to those images, you can take a scroll/stroll upwards through the series.

And as mentioned earlier quite a bit is coming up: the playbook for change, rethinking narratives, make it happen stories and one idea I’m particularly curious about #IFNs.

I also opened an account for Views from around the universe: @universe-views.bsky.social But so far, I used it very little.

Have a pleasant day. Take care.

Charlie Alice Raya, 14 January 2025

What if the new year
makes us fly?
rise
twirl along?

What if the new year is
a new beginning?
Not just the promise of the word.

What if we make the new happen?