J.R. Johnson

I began this year with the target of writing every day. It was a biggish goal for me, as 2020 put paid to a lot of plans and it had been a long time since I’d written as much as I’d hoped.

For maximum accountability, I decided to use the blog. There’s no cheating if your posts are out there for the whole world to see. It also forces me to have a beginning, middle and end to whatever it is I’m writing. More or less.

The goal was to use the daily post as both goad and guide. Write daily, yes, but about what? The resulting essays range the gamut from magic to writing to science, food, inspiration and more.

Here they all are, a map of both internal and external worlds: #365Ways | J.R. Johnson

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It’s the last day of the year and that brings me to a question: Now that I’ve established this daily habit, what next? Keep the streak going, shift to other forms of writing, all of the above?

Does the time and attention needed to write a daily post serve as a motivator, a distraction, or fuel for other writing? That’s to be determined but I won’t lie, crossing each day off the calendar is satisfying. 

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We all have an outer face that we show the world, but the other day someone told me I resembled my blog, which is just about the nicest thing they could have said.

I’m not always positive, productive, happy or sweet, but I do try, and that’s what I’ve tried to share with you.

As we all know, it’s been a long, strange pandemic. While I haven’t learned another language, perfected my tango or taken up blacksmithing, I have managed to make progress on some fronts. More importantly, I’ve tried to find ways to help you look on the bright side of what has been an often dark time. 

Three hundred and sixty-five ways, in fact.

Thanks for sharing the year with me. May our next one be bright.

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