Love What + Who You Do, Boo!

On Letting Our Hearts Lead The Way

Photo by Mayur Gala on Unsplash

I spent yesterday playing catch-up on my email. All of it. And it took all day.

There were more than 1,000 messages sitting patiently (and not so patiently) in my COLLIDE PRESS inbox alone, plus another 250 waiting in my personal account.

After one too many corporate jobs, email and I are officially frenemies.

I don’t love the mechanics of email—the folders, the flags, the false urgency—but I do love its convenience and what it facilitates: Connection. I had so much fun reading all the digital hellos from people around the world who took the time to reach out.

Because of those folks, I do my best to keep up and respond. Even when the numbers make it painfully clear I still have plenty of room for improvement.

That inbox purge felt like a small reset. A clearing of the throat. A reminder that my life, like my inbox, has a habit of filling up quickly with ideas, intentions, and unfinished business. Some of them matter deeply. Some of them just linger because I haven’t yet decided what to do with them.

That same love-it-or-leave-it energy has been spilling into other parts of my life lately.

I’m easing my way back to the digital piano, letting my fingers remember things my brain forgot. I’m picking up the ukulele again, not to impress anyone, but because it makes my shoulders drop an inch when I play.

I’m also taking my photography more seriously, in a pay-attention-and-play kind of way. Photography forces me to slow down, look closer, and care more.

To better process my photos and sharpen my graphic design skills, I’ve been diving deeper into Affinity and Photoshop, learning new tools, shortcuts, and possibilities.

There’s something quietly thrilling about realizing I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I can make. It feels like discovering a locked door I didn’t even know existed and realizing I’ve been holding the key all along.

And lastly, I’m considering jumping back into the dating pool.

I say considering because it leaves room to breathe. Considering invites curiosity without pressure, interest without obligation. I’m aiming for less “Here we go again” and more “Let’s see what happens.”

All of this adds up to a wish list a mile long for 2026.

But here’s the thing I keep coming back to. I don’t want this year to be about chasing checklists or proving anything to anyone. I want it to be about alignment and balance. About noticing what pulls me in gently versus what demands my attention loudly. About choosing what feels nourishing instead of what feels expected.

For a long time, I second-guessed my instincts. I asked for too many opinions. I tried to justify my interests, my attractions, my creative obsessions, my timing.

I treated my heart like a suggestion box instead of a compass.

But I’m all done with that now. About damn time, huh?

Loving what you love—art, books, design, film, music, photography, pop culture, and queer history in my case—is not frivolous. And loving who you love—bearish guys with smiles bigger than their bellies in my case—is not up for debate.

Our loves don’t need to be crowdsourced or require a permission slip.

Letting your heart lead doesn’t mean abandoning discernment or boundaries.

It means trusting that small, steady internal tug that says, “This matters to me,” and allowing yourself to follow your bliss and curiosity without immediately demanding to know where it’s headed or how it will be received.

Yes, sooner than later, my inbox will fill up again and my to-do list will outpace my available free time. But my future will continue to unfold in ways that feel big, bold, and wide open.

So I’m listening more closely now:

• To what energizes me.

• To what softens me.

• To what sparks something warm and unmistakable in my chest.

And that feels like a pretty good way to move (gay-ly) forward.

Love what and who you do, boo. Your heart already knows the way.

Keep calm and love on!
Clint 🌈✌️

P.S. In the immortal words of Miss RuPaul Charles, "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” Love IS a good thing!

P.P.S. What and who do YOU love, boo?

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MAN CRUSH OF THE DAY

JEREMY RENNER = Born January 7, 1971

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