After three years of silence here on the Magic Mirror, magically, I am back.

So much has changed. I live in DC, for one thing. And the people I teach happen to be, for the most part, a lot shorter. (Quite a few of them even shorter than me! Ha! — For now ;))

I had a breakthrough year as an artist and as a teacher, and maybe as a human being. I have created a writing routine for life. It was a year of LEARNING, yes, learning in all caps, and in bold, for good measure.

This year I completed The Artist Way by Julia Cameron, and started the practice of the morning pages. With the help of an amazing author friend and meditation teacher, Heather Demetrios, I added meditation to my everyday routine. This year I finished two rough drafts of stories for young readers: one that doesn’t count — and one that does. I discovered Buddhism, which helped me so, so much, and which, once again confirmed my passionate belief that magic is absolutely real, that we are made of it, and that it’s all around us. I have started catching up on today’s hottest YA reads. (Started to, because completely catching up is, of course, impossible). I have made so many new friends this year, learned so much from my teaching mentors, and from my goofy, beautiful, brilliant students. I have learned to be braver. I might not be completely there yet, but I have definitely been learning to not fear making mistakes, but to embrace them.

Being a middle school teacher and a parent of a teenager, I have also developed a nice layer of thick skin, and not because I have gotten less sensitive, necessarily, but because I just learned to chill out more, to laugh more, to love more.

Because you see, I’ve finally figured out that life is never, ever going to be perfect.  (Some of you might be thinking, duh. But it took me a long time.) I’ve figured out that emotions, problems, challenges, triumphs, moments of happiness — they’re all weather, now moving over us, now shifting away like clouds in the sky.

This year, then, my resolutions are: to continue to live bravely, to embrace mistakes, and to connect more with the world around me. This is the year of me coming back out of creative hiding (which was necessary), and saying “hey!” back to the world.

On this blog, expect updates, snippets of my teaching adventures, more lessons learned (hey, I am all about lessons!), reviews and author and reader interviews. Not committing to any timeline, because my life IS crazy, and the winter break won’t last forever. All I can say though is that you’ll definitely be hearing from me more.

Happy New Year!

Let’s go get 2019 — let’s make it the year of connection, courage and creativity!