I'm HERE! Now. Guaranteed.

Hey there, I want to preface the coming post with a note to acknowledge that it has been a year since my last post and why that is.  The short answer is, "*shrug* I dunno."  The longer, more thoughtful answer is, "I was busy and things just snowballed and yada yada yada".  But the real answer lies somewhere in between, something like this, "I was busy, yes, with life events; but also with lots of internal examination and self~growth sorts of things that I wasn't always comfortable with posting because no one other than me, my husband, and my counselor needs to know that shit.  Especially in detail."  It's not always pretty getting to where you want to be.

I had no idea that it'd been a full year tho, but that goes to show that usually, when stuff isn't a habit, it fades from your daily purview or weekly activity list.  Like using that gym membership that is deducted from my checking account automatically.  Which reminds me, where is my swim suit and does it even fit?

Obviously not me.
But I thought I should say so anyway.

Writing is thinking for me.  This can be an extremely useful thing to know, for both the reader and me.  For me, so that I am aware of tangential tendencies that may start with, "and another thing" and can cut that from the finished product.  For the reader, so they might understand how my beautiful mind works, nestled in its cerebrospinal fluid bath of plasma, electrolytes, sodium, and chloride, protected by the lumpy bumpiness of my thick hard skull, covered with my silver sprayed not~blonde hair, which never features a rubberized cap of overlapping layered scales.  I'm so NOT mermaid material.

Two weekends ago, I went to a Writer's Retreat at the Homestead Education Center.  Lots of good stuffs resulted, of course, because when does anything at the Homestead not end with shiny happy people who are recharged and ready to face the oncoming tasks?  If you've never been to the Homestead, the answer to that is "never".  We always leave with a sense of renewed purpose and much inspiration.

That is not to say that we all leave with a much easier life.  In fact, most of us don't.  Most of us realize how complex our task is and are ready to give it more than the ol' college try.  Most of us are committed to either continuing with an ongoing project or to take on a new one.  Either way, we're ready to up the stakes and climb to the next level.  Whether that's improving our families' health with fermenting foods, starting our own sour dough and baking tasty breads, raising goats and chickens, or mapping our short/immediate, middle/one year, or long term goals and how we plan to get there, or writing our memoirs, short stories, novels, theses, and guides and then publishing them thru a variety of possible means, like blogs, magazines, newspapers, peer review journals, self~, indie~, larger publishing houses and so forth.

No, having visited the Homestead doesn't make life easier in this instant gratification craving culture; but spending the time at the Homestead does make life better, clearer, and more doable.  Even tho none of us are exactly the same, we meet others with similar goals, we build our communities, and we might even find our tribes where we can be accepted, satisfying our desire to belong as we are, as we will be, as we change and grow into who we truly are in our own skin.

Thank you oh so very much, Alison Buehler; you are one of my human heroes.