Just start, they said. And so I did.
After years of procrastinating, on a day when the power went out—when there was no internet; no smart phone; no light switch; no easy way to open the garage, even—I opened my laptop and started to write.
I had no idea what to write, at first. I’d been stuffing words inside me for so long I didn’t remember how to do anything else. Pain, sadness, disappointment—who wants to hear about those? No one in this social-media, surface-driven society, that’s for sure. (Just be happy!)
But the truth was, I wasn’t happy. Life how I’d imagined it as a travel blogger in my twenties had not become reality. Instead, now in my late thirties, I was still at odds with myself—missing someone I loved and wrestling daily with self-doubt…
Which is true for many people (I'm sure), especially those nearing "mid-life"—oh no!—like me.
My previous blog was named Shift. I called it that because, even then, I realized that “the only thing constant is change.” No life circumstance, stage, or age is permanent. I was a young adult but knew that, someday, I’d be where I am now, looking back, wondering where time went.
I won’t be giving this blog a name. Instead, I hope to tie it to my own so that I can prove to myself (and maybe you, too) that what I said was true. Just as no life stage is permanent, no life rut is permanent, either. We are all connected: in our hopes, joys, love, and pain, and in our ability, when necessary, to transcend them.