2025 Here We Come!
No Vacation Required
Happy New Year!
2025 is a biggie for us.
In March, it’ll be 25 years since we got married. Well, technically, we married ourselves (because, lol, it was 25 years ago aaaaand bigots). For the record, it does not seem like that long ago that we made it official beside a gorgeous waterfall in the shadow of Mount Arenal in Costa Rica.
Confession time… If you’ve been in our orbit, you know that we’ve actually been celebrating our 25th for over a year now. Why? Gay math, of course. That means that we have two anniversaries: the day we started dating and the day we got married—four if you count the marriage in Portland that was annulled the same weekend and the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision (thanks ACLU!). And why not drag out the merriment?! We all need reasons for joy in these increasingly divisive and uncertain times.
Speaking of wobbly times, despite (or maybe because of) the chaos, these last couple of years, especially, have found us intensely grateful. Grateful that we’re both in excellent health. Grateful that we still have our mental faculties. Grateful for the opportunities we’ve been afforded in a world where so many go without. And, because it’s a milestone anniversary, we’ve found ourselves over-the-top grateful that we can ride out life’s highs and lows together.
We kicked the first leg of this multi-part, ridiculously dense anniversary commemoration in 2023 with a charity run, followed by monthlong journeys to Asia, Europe, and several US National Parks. For good measure, we also threw in lots of challenges, like training for/completing the Seattle Marathon. We consider those fun, so maybe we should be concerned about our mental faculties.
Most of 2024, on the other hand, was intentionally marked by slightly more chill revelry. As we’ve also spent this special period redesigning our life and deciding what the next 25 years might look like, we wanted to focus on putting a lot of our decisions into action across the last year.
Some highlights:
We’ve refined our work helping individuals and organizations with change. To facilitate that, we upgraded our skills. Kent completed a post-graduate program fine-tuning his expertise and Caanan earned a designation awarded to individuals who have demonstrated mastery in the field of HR. We talk about all of these things on our Substack, which we also launched early in 2024.
As it was an election year, we leaned further into our advocacy work. Our activism centers on expanding the circle of opportunity and upholding the inherent dignity of all individuals – including and especially BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and migrant communities – and we were steadfast in fighting to protect civil liberties (again, thanks ACLU).
Although it wasn’t the travel-palooza 2023 was, we did a lot of exploring – Hawaii and New York City were highlights. We even continued to keep *just* our tippy toes dipped in the travel campaign world and did a couple of fun things in that arena. Most noteworthy, though, were our adventures right here in Seattle and Washington State. In the warmer months, we hiked, well, constantly, and we conquered multi-day visits to all three of our state’s National Parks.
And speaking of Washington State…. You know we love this place more than anything, right? Right!? Well, we took that love to new – and soon to be very public – heights in 2024, and we are bursting at the seams with excitement to share the scoop far and wide. Sorry to be vague, but stay tuned.
As we head into 2025, we’re reflecting on the rough stuff too. The best and most meaningful kind of growth often comes in the wake of setbacks and/or the not so bright and sunny parts of the year. We had our share of that, too (in a big way, actually!), and we’ve come out the other side stronger and with a heightened awareness of how fragile life is.
Here’s wishing you a 2025 filled with everything you want. Since the year ahead will certainly present challenges, be sure to give yourself a lot of space and grace. We’ve most definitely built that into our plan.
Thanks for being in our world. Feel free to reach out any time.
Love,
Caanan and Kent