~AntarticFox

Hey all!

It has been... A hell of a year. I feel like every month has ended with me sighing and mumbling those words. Hell of a day. Hell of a week. Hell of a month.

2023 was not my best year on record by any metric I feel.

But given what a year it's been, I'm... Still rather pleased with it overall. There's a lot of empty seats at the table. Heck, Shadi and I lost three family members in the back half of this year, and two in the week before Christmas alone. It's been a hard time. There's been a lot of tears.

But, so to are there new folks and friends to help fill the quiet voids where absent friends once sat. And I cannot adequately express my gratitude to all of them, new and old alike. Words for feelings that big simply haven't been made yet.

And this year, without those friends, I'm not sure the year would have been nearly a fraction as good as it ended up.

If you've been around me, you know I don't mince words when it comes to expressing my heartfelt thanks to people. Sometimes, a friend just being themselves is more than enough. A word of kindness here, a nudge of encouragement there.

Saving a life because you happened to check in at the right moment.

Hell, that one still feels an odd debt to hold. Life plays out in funny ways sometimes.

And as I've gotten older, no richer for wealth, but certainly for wisdom, whomever said that the real treasure on the adventure was the friends we made along the way was right.

It's corny, sounds silly to say aloud, and yet, there it is. More money can always be made. Time with those most excellent and dearest friends can't. I've come to truly cherish every dang minute of their time I'm given, in person, online, seriousness, silliness, and sadness or smiles all around.

Good folks attract their like, and this year, I had the delight and pleasure of meeting entire circles of them, both in person and from around the world through this weird and each fandom and friends.

You all know who you are. If you think it's for you, it's for you. If you don't think this is about you, it is about you.

Each of us bring little sparks of joy and hope and good to those around us in wonderful, often unseen, and unexpected ways. It's that second one that bothers me, because friends should be championed and praised often for the good they do for us. Would you really want how much they matter left unsaid after all?

So thank you, to my friends, dear, wonderful, amazing people you are, for being my friends. So much here when I say this, words of adequacy to capture just how much you all mean fall woefully short, but I hope you all know you matter a whole hell of a lot, even if we don't talk every day. Kindness matters, and ought be practiced often. I'm glad for each and every one of you, and you ought know who you are by now, ha! I make no secrets of my fondness for the quality and joy you all add to mine, and the lives of those around you as well.

Thank you to my fans, for your readership and little nudges of support and encouragement. And thank you, whomever you are reading this, for being yourself. Never stop trying to be a better version of that. Even a tiny bit each take will have made strides in a year's time.