I spent the last day of 2023 sitting cross-legged on the floor with a group of friends, cutting up magazines and pasting bits and pieces to canvas coated boards I’d bought at Michael’s the day before.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills played on the TV, the Diet Coke flowed like wine, and we quietly worked on what could be called a vision board if you’re into that kind of thing. If you’re not — if the idea of such a project fills you with the kind of ire I feel for the concept of manifesting* — then let’s call these projects Idea Boards or Inspiration Boards or Collage Boards or just Boards With Things Pasted On Them.
The point was not to try to optimize or improve, but to try to focus our energy and intentions for the year. To set a theme for the days ahead based not on the urgent, but the important. Because each of the women sitting around my coffee table are burned out beyond belief, crisp at the edges and tough in the middle and any other baking metaphor you can think of.
