A Hiatus Come and Gone

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I’m inclined to believe that unless your blog or online endeavors are the way you make your living, they are likely to ebb and flow, to take breaks, to change over time. For me, at least, this is true. I find that there are times in my life when because of circumstances or emotions, I write and engage more or less. I think this is probably normal and it points to the fact that life is not a steady experience set out on a predetermined railroad track to ride, rather life is uncertain and full of choices and likely to be interrupted and expanded and altered in numerous ways.

This blog has been on a hiatus for quite some time, but I think that perhaps it is time to reengage with it.

For those of you who do not know, this particular time of no blogging began with the Kickstarter for my book, Hello, Goodbye, We Meet Again. What I envisioned to be a three-month enterprise gradually became an 18-month endeavor that was both way more difficult and probably much more fulfilling than I imagined. It was during this time that I learned a lot about the printing and publishing worlds, learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, discovered that getting a book from your computer to press to your readers is complicated, and decided that I really like this publishing thing and I think I will keep it up. So in the end, it was good. Busy but good.

During these months of discovering how to publish, I also had the amazing and unexpected opportunity to begin teaching scientific writing to biology and bioengineering undergraduate students, and I also managed to somehow be the president of a women’s club that was celebrating their centennial year. Each of these experiences has been enriching and life-changing and together they took up almost all of the space in the room of my life for quite some time. But now, things have shifted yet again, and I am loving having a little bit more time to pursue things that have grown to be near and dear to my heart.

I am working on pushing my book out to the world, writing more, developing writing resources for others, and creating a few websites that let me engage in things that I care about. There will be more about those coming soon, but for now I am excited to be in a space where other hiatuses have begun and the hiatus for my blog has ended.

In all of the changes, the unexpected things, the good things, the tough things, I am learning that there is most definitely need for the pause and the break. There is a need to make a list and decide which things you want to fill the space in your life right now. They will not be the things that always fill your time, but what are the ones that are important for you today and in these weeks or months? What are the things that might need a hiatus?

I love the word hiatus. It feels like it has space inside of it, like it is old enough to be well worn in our language but also still full of enough gravitas to effectively describe what it is. It doesn’t have a time limit on it. It doesn’t imply boundaries. It is an indication of holding temporal space in the ether for those things in life that are not finished but you cannot do right now. And there are surprisingly many of those in my life. But I know that it’s ok to ebb and flow with life. In fact, it is probably advised. Ride the wave and be willing to hold and let go when necessary. Sometimes it’s a hiatus, sometimes it’s a hi.

So after an unexpectedly long hiatus, hi again, readers. I hope your lives have been ebbing and flowing in beautiful ways since I’ve been gone.

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4 Comments

  1. Rebekah Seiverling

    Welcome back 🙂 I have missed reading your words. Your book was so good. It had layers of emotion and I found myself reading so slowly and truly feeling everything that these characters were going through. I can’t wait to read more!

    • the modern real

      Rebekah…I just realized that I never responded. Thank so much! I love seeing your name here on the page. Makes me smile. 🙂

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