The first words after an absence are the hardest. How to break the silence? I could give you an apology, or an excuse, or a reason. That implies that in some small way you might have wondered what happened to me. I’m going to assume that’s true since you’re here and you’re reading!

Oh, Lord, 2020. We are deep into it, aren’t we? Back in May, I was excited. We were emerging from ten weeks of lock-down, and my family had a lot to get done during June and July. My mantra was “Five Months in Two,” meaning that we had five months worth of fun and work and graduations and vacations and horse shows to put into two months. It was going to be busy but after the enforced rest I felt ready. It looked like COVID was on its way out and we would be good to go.

Then the horrible killing of George Floyd happened, and protests and riots and a huge national conversation started. I wrote my last post in the wake of those events. I have more to say about that post, but I’ll leave it for later. In addition, COVID isn’t going away like I’d expected. While the lockdown isn’t enforced anymore, life isn’t back to normal. In many ways it feels like we are under a threat of things closing up at any given moment. But for now, I’m looking ahead.

I’ve missed this space, but even more I’ve missed having a head clear enough to fill this space! It’s been an anxious year, and for me that anxiety has worked as a drag on every project, every kind act, every creative thought that I’ve had. I had an easy time concentrating on the thing right in front of me right this minute, but picking my eyes up and looking at a bigger picture was nearly impossible. That explains why my family was able to eat so well, and why the garden looks pretty good. Make this meal. Pull that weed.

School is back in session, thankfully. All four are in school with at least a few in-person classes, and the college kids are all moved in. Suddenly I have swaths of uninterrupted time again. I’m not one who can sit down for ten minutes at a time and come away with a coherent set of thoughts. It takes a couple of hours and a decent cup of coffee. It also takes blocking out the time to write. It’s going to be interesting to see what uninterrupted time really feels like!

Thanks for checking back in on me and my blog. I’m truly looking forward to restarting the Lectionary lessons, sharing some photography, and exploring a variety of other topics. 

And, by the way, the picture above is from the very beautiful Water Lemon Bay on St., John, USVI. We were lucky enough to be there twice this summer!