At the start of each year, I like to sit down and draw something while thinking about the whole new year thing. Away from my usual rambling and deliberately obtuse sketchbook pages or from the externally directed commercial work I do, I take the first opportunity of the new year to draw something with intention and hope, and further, the wish that it might be an omen or harbinger of good things to come.

So this year, after all that 2017 wrought, I thought about compassion and insight and listening and learning and understanding. About all the suffering and hard truths and struggling and sorrow that might blossom into something magnificent and powerful this year. Maybe it's naively optimistic, but my hope is that we can be honest and compassionate through times of necessary change and difficult evolution, gentle in our rage and discontent, soft in our strength.

I hope it's all for the best.