When I introduced this month’s IndieWeb Carnival theme belief, I was terribly excited to take a quiet Saturday morning and really put together a beautiful piece on how I relate to the theme.

We make plans, and God laughs. In late October, God laughed when I triple-fractured my ankle. My original recovery timeline, which included surgery under general anesthesia, had me use first a cast and then an air cast until December 25. Tomorrow. But we make plans, and God laughs.

In a few hours, I’ll be going in for a second surgery, this time to take care of the post-operative bacterial infection that’s been festering. After that, I’ll require twelve weeks of antibiotics, two of which intravenous. I expect that by this time next week, a nurse will visit my home daily to fix me up with a fresh bag of antibiotics.

This I believe: we make plans, and God laughs.

In my head, God’s laugh doesn’t sound evil at all. It’s something like Jim disarmedly shaking his head at Michael right before they embark on a karaoke duet of “Islands in the Stream”. I can’t believe you make the choices you make, but I can’t help but love you — really, and we’ll make do with what we’ve got.

To my enjoyment, other owners of personal websites took a moment to think about the word “belief”. Below, you’ll find their submissions. If you’re reading this, and you wonder why your post is not included in the list, please know I’ll add it as soon as I’m able.

Happy holidays, and a safe and healthy 2025 to you and yours!

Submissions

• Lou Plummer wrote This Is What I Believe, which I love for its variety of beliefs. The paragraph “It Is Possible to Overcome Nature and Nurture” resonated deeply with me. I, too, am a child of the South, although a very different South at that.
• Andrei wrote Believe, which jarringly juxtaposes one of my favorite images in TV history with a list of truth bombs we may all agree with at some point in our lives. The part about the “pure useful idiots” rang true for me; how did the relationship between fascism and antisemitism shift so drastically? Luckily we agree: it’s the people who make it worth the fight.
• Martín Morales wrote Belief, a lovely reflection on that beautiful epistemological paradox: that information may exist, but we simply don’t or can’t have it. “During certain moments, the faith emerges within oneself”, he writes. I’ve been trying to embrace that part of life a bit more. It can be an astonishing dwelling.
• Ken wrote I Want to Believe, a post that I appreciate because it gives me access to something I don’t have: the million little “oh my god yeah I’d never thought of that” moments one experiences in parenthood. I know of one sad PostSecret submission citing financial reasons for telling a child Santa doesn’t exist, but I’d love to know of more reasons.
• Juha-Matti Santala wrote Struggles with believing in myself, an essay considering impostor syndrome, and the impact it can have on how we see ourselves and move in the world. Juhis, I hope 2025 will be good to you! (P.S.: I think you’d be great to work with.)
• Sara Jakša wrote What Beliefs Serve You?, which made me feel like I could travel along with her stream of thoughts for a little bit, to my delight. From it, I take a good kernel of truth into 2025: “all the beliefs can be tested and updated by living the lives we want. Which beliefs are stopping you?”