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Dreams I’ll Send You
A birthday month practice
For the month of February 2025, I’ve decided to publish a micro essay once a day. After the January we have had, as we navigate our current chaos and collapses, I am craving a new daily creative practice. Usually, when I’m not focused on longer form writing, I jot down thoughts in various journals I keep around my desk. But much of this is simply random thoughts and most of it ends up unpublished. In the past, I also used to post a poem a day with an accompanying image on social media, one month at a time. I’ve decided to combine these two practices into a public one. This series** is named after a line in “Blues in Stereo,” by Langston Hughes — who, like me, was a February 1st baby — and will be random thoughts, themes, phrases that I haven’t planned ahead of time. Writing the series is one way, I hope, of salving my soul.
Today, Feb 1, is my birthday. I usually celebrate the day by myself with a museum, a movie, and a massage, followed by reading over a glass of wine or champagne and something sweet. I ignore news, work emails, and messages except for birthday wishes. I celebrate with other loved ones later at night or on a completely separate day. I started doing this when I was practicing at a NYC law firm, when using my birthday as an excuse to take a day for myself was one of the few escapes from what was rather a soul-draining experience. Even…
