*Waves sheepishly*

To say that this has not been a good year for my writing is such a horrendous understatement. As I’ve alluded elsewhere and will eventually write about, 2022 was a rough one on the personal front. Thankfully my little nuclear family is healthy and strong, but further afield family matters got extremely messy and my personal health had a few bumps and scares AGAIN. There were challenges at work and all the other slings and arrows of modern life thrown in and to cap it all off, we decided to get a puppy - though that choice was very much a reward to self for having got through such a crap year.

It was an excellent choice, she makes me irrationally happy.

This tiny dog has a grip on our family that is not entirely healthy…

In our defense, she is STUPID cute.

In 2023 I have been overcorrecting somewhat by making big career decisions, travelling much more, spending time and money on relationships, and refocusing on my health and fitness. This too has been the right thing to do by every conceivable measure; I have felt as though my life has been lived with intention over the last year, as though I have finally reached a level where I am able to build and maintain a life that I want and feels safe and sustainable. It has done wonders for my mental health.

All of which is to say…yeah, I’ve been less online which I dislike. I also have been consuming and even flirting in the world of creating video which is something I’ve wanted to learn for literal years, so that hasn’t helped. But writing is part of who I am at a very deep and core level and I dislike the backseat it has taken in my life for so long. This is going to change, even if my once nicely loyal and relatively impressive readership has VANISHED. I still have things to say and things to work through, which can only be tackled through the tools of pen and ink. Metaphorically.