What a Year That Was!
Bring it on, 2022. I'm getting ready for you.
Hi gang, I’ve been gone for a while, and I hope this is the last time it’ll be that long. We’ve closed up the house for the winter and are at our daughter’s for Christmas. Then we’ll head south with the rest of the snowbirds and hang out until Spring, when the ice thaws and the snow is remaindered in the deep woods.
I’ll be happy by then to get back home but we won’t be able to feed the migrating birds. There are two bear families roaming around and I’m sure they’ve hibernated close by. They’ll be looking for food to fill their empty bellies and they’re not above raiding bird feeders and garbage cans. The birds and the deer will have to get along without seed and compost for a while until those busy bruins settle down.
I’ve been writing and it’s productive, thank goodness. I’m happy with the progress, but I’m having a hard time talking about writing when my own writing is at an intense stage. The good thing is, it isn’t often my writing is intense. It’s exhausting!
Come the new year I’ll be here as often as I can be, and I hope you’ll be here, too. I’m still hoping we can turn this into a vibrant working community, and I’ve been thinking about how best to do that. So stay tuned. I’m working on it!
I want to wish you all happy holidays and a better new year. If you got through 2021 relatively unscathed, here’s to you! If you didn’t but you’re still here, still reading this, let’s promise to get through this next year together. Let’s help where we can and ask for help when we need it.
That last part is so important. We forget sometimes that every community is a community of helpers. We’re here for each other as writers and as friends, and I love that that is ever so!
Stay safe out there. These are parlous times. This past year was a doozy! I’ll be back as soon as the Christmas clean-up ends.
Love, Mona
A lovely post in my inbox. The regular reading treat from yourself that I have looked forward to I have missed. What a treat to receive the ping in my inbox and a hint of normality will resume.
I agree with the rest of the world that we should look after one another always. Will we all do it? I’ll do my bit and I’m sure you’ll do yours.
Thinking of the bears too xx
It has indeed been quite a year. I've also had an intense time with my writing - both bad intense and good intense. I went through a period where every word felt as if it was being wrung out of me. My writing ended up taking so much more time than it should have. Fortunately, my writing didn't sound like it was being wrung out of me, but the joy was gone. Then I did a whole lot of free writing to try and unstick myself and realised just how much my perfectionism was affecting me. I'm now in a period where I'm full of ideas and new projects, which is a really fun place to be.
I wish you all the best for the holiday season, and a productive new year.