A letter from Dec 31, 2024

Dear FutureMe, It's been three weeks since you've celebrated your 40th birthday. The road to the next decade of life has formed a large part of this previous year. I know, you feel discouraged at the way that life is heading. As you're sitting in front of both computer screens typing this letter out in between rescheduling all the cases that are in your queue. I'm writing to reassure you that things aren't as bleak as they are in your mind. In 2024, you put out the follow up to "A Poetic Journey, Staying At Home". The Poetic Summer dawned and so did the second in the series of poetry books. More effort was put into making everyone aware of the resonant words that you share on a daily basis. As a result, you reaped more rewards. And at the end of this year, you will have the poems compiled for the third book with the hopes of getting it published sometime in 2026. This will also be the year that you begin to think of what the next job will be. But not before you make it two the second anniversary working at OATH. You begin to realize that the old habits of beating yourself up at the sheer number of cases each day and the seeming need to be exact will take their toll. In this next year, the Iberian peninsula called your name not once, but twice. From the writers residency at Chateau d'Orquevaux in September that set the stage for the first writings of a longer piece of work to come. It's a telling of the story of how your invisible muse, Caterina came to be a part of your life as you seek out the reasons why she keeps appearing in every city that you've visited since 2022 and the story shows her coming to life as a real person. In November, you rounded off a ten year wait and returned to Spain. Breaking away from Gate 1 Travel, you joined a solo travelers only trip with EF/Go Ahead Tours. It was a bit of an adjustment at first as you were used to being the only solo traveler in a group of couples and partners. But you know what, you flourished with a change of scenery. The Alhambra still held it's magic spell over you and so did La Sagrada Familia. And you made the decision to extend the trip two more days to visit Valencia before flying back to NYC in time for Thanksgiving. Central Europe is the next destination, from Vienna to Budapest and Berlin. You began to get your act together. From needed decluttering of the bookshelf and the night stand, to a refresh of the summer wardrobe. You took a dance class at the start of the year, a writing course at mid year and started to learn how to cook by the end of the year. You also have a new phone too and you can have more of the apps that your previous devices missed out on. The family will finally got done this year. With it being in a place that it can be easily accessed with both parents wishes clearly written out. And finally, the birthday celebration happened. Once in NYC with your friend and coach Felice and then you and Natalie took a trip to the Caribbean in a revisit to the cruise of the Southern Caribbean back in 2017. 2025 is going to be a year for you. Even if 2024 you doesn't see it happening as he types out this letter. Dear Future Me...you've got this!