It’s taken me a long time to write this post. I drafted it in my head a few times, over the course of the last few months, and then just yesterday I wrote something only to delete it and start again now. Which I suppose is fitting, given the topic.

I want to get this right—to express what I’m thinking in the right way—but it’s tricky because I’m out of practice and also because there’s that great big elephant in the way. And the elephant is why I’m out of practice.

So. Let me rewind.

The last thing I posted to this blog was in January last year, and that was just a recap of 2023. Since then, my whole world fell apart and I’ve been rebuilding, brick by brick.

If you’ve been my Facebook friend during that time, you likely know the details, or at least the basic gist. If not… I honestly don’t know how much I want to get into the specifics. I definitely don’t feel quite so comfortable airing my raw feelings in public as I used to be. But I also don’t think that change is a bad thing. Who knows, I might change my mind again later. The point is, this is all a work in progress. I’m still figuring things out.

To pull back a bit—and this might seem like an off-the-topic tangent, but bear with me—this year, my favourite band in the world started creating music again. Their previous lead vocalist died, and there was nothing (except a huge amount of collective grief) for seven years, and now the remaining members (plus a new addition) have started again.

This is also the year that the TV show that got me through so many hard times as a teenager and young adult has started circling the wagons for a comeback. And it just feels… right, to me that these things are happening. Or at least emotionally resonant from a personal perspective.

The past is the past and we can’t go back, but things from the past—the good parts—can come forward and live again.

All that to say, I’m writing again. I will be posting here again. Not in exactly the same way as before, but hopefully in a way that’s just as good. Or, dare I hope it, even better? That part remains to be seen, but if you’re reading this, and you’re still with me, thank you. I understand that I may have lost people (readers, friends) along the way, but all I can do is move forward.

To that end, and on a purely logistical note, I have moved my newsletter over to Substack and will be posting there as well as here. Wanna join me?