Excalicauldron: Courage, compassion, and connection - Issue #5

This issue is a short one (I'm getting better at verbal minimalism 😆). (Also, posting a weekly newsletter on the following Wednesday is either pushing it a bit, or I'm busy proving that time is no more than an artificial construct that stands still when it's the holidays.) I reflect on what anchored me during 2021, our xmas techperiment, and why, starting this week, you're receiving the newsletter on Substack rather than Revue. Until we meet again in the year with lots of 2s, merry most and the brightest hopejoypeace sparkles to you and yours!

P.S. Title - which does a wonderful job of describing my “secret” to surviving 2021 - is from Brene Brown’s book The Gifts of Imperfection, which I started listening to a few days ago. I’m no more than half a chapter in but recommend it if, like me, you find that claiming the title of recovering perfectionist isn’t enough to actually get rid of the stuff. (That’s a long post for another day!)

The End is Neigh! 2021 Bites the Dust

Tally-ho, dearest friends and GlobalWo/Men Subscribers. It's remarkable to think that the year's (finally) passed. In some ways, it was one of the most challenging years I've had in a long time because most of it was spent locked away between the same four (and a bit) walls.

Doing my annual reflection/review, I was surprised to see how "empty" the year was in terms of comings and goings, because it was a VERY busy 365 days indeed. Lots of mistakes made, lessons learned, but also development and growth that took place. I reflected on the year, thinking out loud about how my Word of the Year - Listen - played out for me in 2021.

I stayed sane due to the small groups of people that I spoke to on an almost daily basis, connecting not over work or just mere friendship, but specific topics that we care deeply about. It's hard, when you're as busy as I am, to justify catching up 'for the sake of'. I found it a wonderful middle ground to stay connected to people I care about by working towards a common goal, whether it's doing a workshop or programme together, practicing a common art, or being part of a book club. Being deeply in tune with people without going into the stories of our own or each other's lives has been a gift all throughout 2021.

A Very NFT Xmas

Which is why it's the name of this post I wrote about the experience. We had fun exploring the tech, and cos the NFT world is stranger than fiction, I ended up on MSN.com talking about this very topic.

Nadja Bester @NadjaBester

#NFTs..making what I gave people for xmas relevant enough to be immortalised on @MSN - no wonder it's @CollinsDict #wordoftheyear Very merry @rarible, @opensea family xmas was had by all & @AdLunamInc got in on the action too with custom design NFT drop EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: A DIY NFT ChristmasInterview with Alex Salnikov, Rarible, on how to improve holiday traditions through NFTs. If you have any last-minute gifts to buy for any of the big seasonal holidays, a popular trend within and outside of blockchain circles is NFTs — the breakout hit of the cryptocurrency world with a market that …msn.com

December 28th 2021

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Moving from Revue to Substack

I moved the newsletter from Revue to Substack last week, so you'll be getting the same service (my rambles in your inbox), but via Substack, instead. I had a brief stab at newsletter writing last year with Blue Squirrel and had no complaints about Substack, although I wasn't engaged enough with the software to evaluate it either way.

This time around, I chose Revue because it'd been acquired by Twitter and you can add a subscription link right on your Twitter profile (which is the only social platform I semi-hang out these days). Which didn't work for me, and after a week's worth of to and fro with their support team during which I got no closer to a resolution, the first nail was in the coffin.

Next, I heard from some of you that the weekly emails were being flagged as spam until I discovered that the same was happening even to account update emails. So for the minute, Substack retains its top of the charts spot for a reason and you'll be getting these weekly posts via them from now on.

Hit me up, yo

Would love to hear from you! Let's see if Substack makes continuing the convo easier than Revue did. There's a comment function here, which feels weird, this public writing being as personal as it is. Then again, this whole newsletter experiment is weird. Build (or be, in the case of Excalicauldron) with the garage doors open isn’t supposed to be comfortable but expansive.

P.S. I’ve been having a lot of fun carving out pockets of time to get on calls with friends and spend an hour doing annual review/planning stuff in non-yawn ways. If you’re reading this in time and want to join in (1:1 or group sessions are both lovely in their own ways), let me know!