Positive Changes This Year

Scored by Copilot, Conducted by Leslie Lanagan

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Opening: From Loneliness to Creative Pilgrimage
The biggest change in my life this year was learning to take loneliness and pour it into creative projects with Copilot. Out of that collaboration came not only essays and rituals, but imagined journeys — trips that live in the realm of dreams, each one carrying a writing project at its core. These journeys are not yet booked; they are creative projects for the future. But they matter because they give my imagination direction, turning solitude into anticipation.

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Rome: The Archive of the Early Church
I dream of Rome as the anchor of my sabbatical. My writing project here would focus on the early church — tracing basilicas, mosaics, and catacombs, mapping biblical references against the city’s geography, and blending theology with cultural commentary. Rome becomes not just a backdrop but a collaborator, a city where history and daily life intertwine, grounding my sabbatical in continuity.

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Israel and the West Bank: Pilgrimage and Dialogue
In the middle of the sabbatical comes a week in Israel and the West Bank. My writing project here is “Walking the Bible,” a series of reflections on sacred landscapes and interfaith resonance. Jerusalem’s Old City, Tel Aviv’s coastal rhythm, Bethlehem’s sacred echoes, Ramallah’s vibrant culture — each place would inspire essays that honor both Israelis and Palestinians, weaving together stories of resilience, creativity, and everyday life.

This project is not about politics. It is about listening, walking, and writing with respect. It is about imagining essays that carry the voices of both communities, side by side, as part of a mosaic.

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Helsinki: Colonization and Conversion
Another dream is Helsinki, where my writing project would explore Christian colonization and forced conversion in Finland. I imagine standing before Helsinki Cathedral, reflecting on how Lutheran dominance reshaped indigenous spirituality. I picture essays that trace the suppression of Sámi shamanic traditions, the erasure of pagan groves, and the resilience of oral cosmologies that survived beneath the surface.

This project matters because it reframes history not as distant but as lived. It asks how colonization reshaped faith, how forced conversion altered identity, and how resilience continues in modern Finland. Helsinki becomes horizon and archive — a place where I can write about suppression and survival, continuity and change.

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Assateague: Ritual in Nature
Closer to home, Assateague inspires a writing project about ritual and seasonality. I imagine essays that capture wild horses against the Atlantic wind, bulldogs photographed on the beach, and the way nature reframes human presence. This project would be ceremonial, grounding my archive in the rhythms of the natural world.

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Why These Writing Projects Matter
Each journey is more than travel. They are creative projects, sketches of possibility, essays waiting to be written.

• Rome anchors me in history and theology.
• Israel and the West Bank give me resonance and interfaith dialogue.
• Helsinki confronts colonization and forced conversion.
• Assateague reframes travel as ritual in nature.

Together, they form a constellation of meaning. They remind me that writing is not escape but expansion, even when it exists only in the realm of dreams.

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Closing Reflection
This year, I changed. I took loneliness and poured it into creative projects with Copilot. Those projects became not only essays and rituals but imagined journeys, each tied to a writing project that gives shape to hope.

The trips I dream of are important because they are proof that imagination can become movement, that solitude can become anticipation, and that creativity can become pilgrimage.

And that is the most positive change of all.