If the last year left you feeling strangely “hungry” even with a full calendar and a full cart, you are not alone. Many neighbors are discovering that more content, more convenience, and more commitments have not added up to more meaning.
Thin vs. thick desires
Writer Joan Westenberg calls it the difference between thin and thick desires.
- Thin desires are the quick hits. Checking notifications, buying one more gadget, scrolling one more reel. They feel urgent, but they do not really change us.
- Thick desires take time. Learning a craft, deepening a friendship, serving a neighborhood, joining a tradition. They reshape who we are as we pursue them.
The catch is that modern life is perfectly set up to feed thin desires. The infrastructure for thick ones. workshops, apprenticeships, third places, civic and faith communities. has been shrinking, even as anxiety, loneliness, and burnout rise.
A different kind of New Year
Psychologist Nick Wignall suggests that part of the problem is how we make resolutions. Instead of picking another outcome to chase. “Lose 10 pounds,” “Finish X project”. He encourages people to choose a virtue or value to grow into over a whole year. Patience, courage, presence, generosity. qualities that change how you move through your days, not just what appears on your to-do list.
That is thick-desire territory. It invites questions like:
- Who am I becoming?
- What do I actually want to care about this year?
- How do I want to show up in my friendships, family, campus, or town?
Those questions do not resolve into a single checklist. They spill into how you spend your attention, where you put your body, and who you decide to walk with.
Small acts of thick living
Thick desires rarely look impressive on social media. They look like simple, local, slightly inconvenient choices that quietly rewire a life.
Inspired by Westenberg and Wignall, here are a few Blue-White-sized ways to lean into a thicker 2026.
- Trade one nightly scroll for a slow conversation. Invite a friend, neighbor, or roommate into your living room or onto your porch for an hour, phones away.
- Pick one skill to practice all year. Baking bread, fixing bikes, playing an instrument, mentoring younger students, volunteering with a local nonprofit. Let the practice, not the performance, be the point.
- Choose a “word of the year” that ties directly to people, not just productivity. Maybe “rooted,” “available,” or “courage.” Post it where you will see it as you leave the house.
- Do one thing each week that will never “scale.” Handwrite a letter. Cook for a small group. Help one person with a problem only they have.
None of this will “fix” the world, but it can change your inner weather, and it can change the texture of life in Happy Valley, one thick choice at a time.
Jump Start 2026: Stirred, Not Stuck
If this resonates. If you are tired of feeling thin and want more than another year of vague hunger. You are invited to start differently.
Jump Start 2026: Stirred, Not Stuck is a live, local-ish experiment in thick desires and thick community. It is a space to:
- Reflect on what actually matters to you in this next season.
- Name a few thick desires worth pursuing in 2026.
- Meet other people in Happy Valley who are also done pretending that “more” is enough.
You can find the details and RSVP here:
Jump Start 2026: Stirred, Not Stuck: https://pinegrovehall.com/event/6388079/748259356/stirred-not-stuck-jump-start-2026
If you are longing for a year that feels less optimized and more alive, come join in. Let’s make 2026 a year where we are not just busy in the Blue-White Zone. We are stirred, not stuck, together.
Melissa Hicks is a learning designer, facilitator, and consultant who helps people and organizations get “unstuck” through small experiments, reflective conversations, and design thinking–inspired practices. When she’s not working with faculty or community groups around Happy Valley, you can sometimes find her singing at the piano bar at the American Ale House, doing morning workouts with her basset and feral cats, or listening to just one more podcast.
