My year end message + final recs of 2024
Five Things Friday #17
Click “play” above to hear me read this message in my own voice.
Hello, hello it is so good to be here with you again. Happy Winter Solstice Eve. As we wind down the year, and since this is the last Five Things Friday release of 2024, I want to formally wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Prosperous & Healthy New Year.
For those of us in recovery, it is a most tender, scattered, frustrating, terrible, wonderful time of year. I see you. You have all my respect. Please be gentle with yourself, and then be even more gentle than that. We have been through so much darkness, and we have more than fought for our place in the warm light.
May you be internally fortified by the peace, strength, and joy of knowing we belong only to ourselves. Our moment to moment rebirth is the moment to moment rebirth of the world, one day at a time. I am eternally grateful for and proud of us. You and I staying in our lives, no matter what they bring or take away, is the greatest gift there is.
I’ll see you back here in January, when I expect to make some enriching changes to DHM — all of which are still under review in my mind at this time.
Here’s an essential post by Lane Watson, from his exceptional newsletter at Sacred Technicians on Substack, about what I’m seriously considering in more thoughtful detail over the next few weeks. If you are a creator of any kind, I highly recommend you read this article in its entirety. Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from it:
“This tension between depth and digital performance isn't just a personal struggle—it's emerging at a crucial moment. As AI and algorithms increasingly shape creative work, the pressure to produce templated content only intensifies. Yet simultaneously, this mechanical approach is creating a hunger for work that carries genuine depth and human intelligence. Your creative resistance isn't just protecting your work—it's preserving something essential about how human creativity evolves and creates lasting value.” —Lane Watson
If you love DHM and can afford to support my work financially, here is where I invite you to become a paying subscriber in order to continue. I have priced the annual subscription as low as Substack will allow at $30. Paid subscriptions are what keep this newsletter coming.
Now let’s get to the goods.
