My, it’s been a while. How are you? How have you weathered the events of the past 18 months? I hope you have been able to come back to your “normal” quicker than me. But if not, I completely understand. For many of us, 2020 and 2021 have been traumatic.
I published the last blog entry on August 14, 2020, a grievous post born from witnessing conflict, anger, and hurt. For some reason, those words needed to be out in the universe. The tension I felt at the time cried out to be visible and heard, to be felt in the community.
But, then afterward, no more words came - only silence.
Now a year later, writing has not been easy for me. I’ve wrestled deeply with writing. Why? I have no idea. Although, I noticed a strange behavioral trend in my daily life. I preferred to wash dirty dishes, take out the trash, or mow the lawn rather than sit my bottom in a chair and write. To do anything but write! My resolve to write publicly evaporated like morning mist in the hot Texas sun.
So, I wrote privately in my journal almost every day.
"A word after a word after a word has power." Margaret Atwood
But recently, the words inside me started dancing like boiling water in a test tube. Perhaps these words desire to be set free from the pages of my journal and spill out into the world with hope and love. Maybe the power contained within them wants to live, heal, and bear fruit.
Only God knows why it seems like the right time for me to stick my toe back into the “writing pool.”
Only God knows if I have the resolve within me to do the hard work of writing regularly.
I can only trust him to supply the graces of courage, resolve, and perseverance along the way.
Today, I find myself in a place of reacquaintance with this blog and you. The last eighteen months changed me. I see the world differently, and I’m sure you do too. And right now, we all need a little help navigating the changes we've experienced and the questions that grew out of those experiences.
May this blog be a safe place where you find encouragement to be courageous and open yourself up to feel again, discover the resolve to look deeper at life, and persevere in the grace to become the person God created you to be.
Image by Pict Rider at Istockphoto.com .