A tough year.
(and perhaps tomorrow too)
hullo,
It is the beginning of the new year and I am gobsmacked.
Not by the time dilation I’ve felt since becoming a father in August, but by the sheer volume and density of experiences I now get to live with each passing day.
I have not been so conscious of all the tiny moments of my time since military school!
Note: If you’d like to read the poems without commentary first, click here
Intermixed with the reality distortion field of parenthood permeating my life, I have also been distorting my reality this holiday season with my own two hands.
Primarily by writing, but also with a smorgasbord of other activities that include chores, guitar, decluttering, making guttural noises with my son, drums, reorganizing my productive systems, community cultivation, dispensing cat treats, and cleansing my brain with Factorio (among many other micro-joys).
It’s important to remember that we’re distorting reality with every small action we take.
We’re much more agentic than we tend to give ourselves credit for.
The little deeds that accompany our little feelings add up to the great sum of change we can eventually make in the projects we work on and, ultimately, the change we can eventually make in our lives. The “frivolous” things I’ve been enjoying are, without a doubt, rehabilitating my “You CAN Do Shit” muscles (yes even Factorio) after a very tough year physically, professionally, and emotionally.
I can see the light at the end of the to-do tunnel (I think) and I encourage you to reach for the tiny tasks when you hit your next slump too.
First, the words.
I added 28 (tbh I’m not sure if I counted correctly) new poems to little feelings.
This feels good.
I needed to finish the year strong. It’s a mix of work spanning grief, winters both inside and out, the nature of living, the living of nature, my son and I hanging out in the quiet mornings, and a few rando topics too. Some are bolder than others, but there’s musical lilt throughout the list which makes me particularly proud.
Here’s one of my new poems from a walk in the snow.
I’m not sure I’m ready for winter to end… so I guess it’s good that I live in New England.
I hope this makes you feel something.
You can find the rest of the new poems right here (they have a little star next to them).
Side note - Social media is not going well, but I’m in good spirits about it. To be honest that’s mostly my fault for not experimenting enough. I have some ideas on how to fix that in the upcoming year so stayed tuned.
For now, please follow me on whichever platform you use the most!
Onto the nuts and bolts
Update Changelog:
I fixed a bug I found that was causing an issue moving between certain poems on the next/previous buttons. I realized I had re-used some indices for my list of poems which caused unexpected traversal behavior
Not too much else changed besides poems according to my github history
This is definitely, probably everything I changed on the site. If you noticed I missed anything, please reply as well
Thanks for taking the time to read the update.
Please share this site update and little feelings itself with anyone you feel may enjoy it and have a nice rest of your day!
happy new year and more soon ↜₍^-༝-^₎
— cameron russell armstrong