Yesterday was the first time I didn’t share a status update this year. We had been fighting furnace issues all day, my folks came down for dinner, and after they left, we spent another hour mucking about with the furnace. By that time, it was after 9pm, and I was cold, tired, and grumpy. As I was getting into the shower, I had the sudden thought: Oh shit, I haven’t written my status update.
I decided not to do it.
To be clear, I could have done the task. I was still tired, but a smidge less grumpy, and no longer cold. I could have rallied. Instead, I prioritized going to bed and getting a decent night’s sleep. I neither stressed about it nor felt any guilt. It’s why I tacked on the ish at the end of the title of this little endeavor.
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About two years ago, I largely stopped writing. Here, short fiction. All of it. The whys and wherefores aren’t something I’m going to get into here, but, for the purposes of this story, what I will share is that in early 2024, I set down the pen, and pretty much didn’t pick it up again until January 1, 2026.
Going into 2026, I set one goal for myself: integrate writing back into my daily life. I thought about working on my long-neglected novel, but I knew I wasn’t ready for that. Before I could tackle something like that, I would first need to rebuild my writing muscles. It’s like going back to the gym: consistency is key, and not every workout needs to be great. Writing had to become a fixture in my day-to-day, something that I would specifically set aside time for each day. Once my writing muscles were rebuilt, then I could take on something more ambitious.
I realized the least difficult way to build a daily writing habit was here, at josh bales [dot] net. So, in the middle of December, I decided that beginning 1-1-26, I would kick off a 365 project. I’d keep it simple: a photo and a short status update. Sometimes it might be a quick recap of the day. What I’m reading, watching, listening to, etc. Maybe some links. Some days it might just be a photo and one sentence. I didn’t want to constrain myself with form or theme. It needed to be loose, not rigid, or I’d never stick with it. In all likelihood, the shit I’d be writing about would be thoroughly uninteresting to anyone other than me, and maybe M and a couple of close comrades. The readership here is probably less than ten people, at best. That’s okay. This is for me, first.
One thing about life is, it always be lifing. I knew it was inevitable that I’d eventually miss a day. Going into this endeavor, my main concern was that missing a day would throw me off my game, make me feel like I’d failed. And I already missed one day, so why bother sticking with the rest of it? (I know myself too well.) Hence the ish.
Occasionally, the stars are not going to align, and I will forget or simply not feel like writing here. When those days happen, like they did yesterday, I’m not going to stress about it, kick myself, quit, or any of that horseshit. I’m going to stick to the plan and pick the pen up again the next day.
three six five(ish) — A photo and a missive from me, every dayish, for a year.