The sun is shining again. The snow has mostly melted, the grass is mostly mud, and the sky is mostly blue.
A lot has happened in this country these past two years - vaccines, being one of the highlights, and waves 2, 3, and 4 being some of the lows. Specific to this apartment, it's been a roller coaster as well. 2 new jobs, starting school, dropping out of school (who knew I wouldn't see the value in paying $6000 a semester for "virtual learning", aka a 3 year old PowerPoint and the joy of writing papers I wrote better during my undergrad?!), a fake marriage ceremony, a boyfriend moving in, an ex-boyfriend moving out, and a solo trip to England and Scotland. It sounds like a good novel... and I can acknowledge that I have been incredibly lucky. Though stable mental health has never been my strength, I have never had COVID-19 to my knowledge, and nobody in my family has been gravely affected. I was blessed to have a job that I could do from home following some adjustments, and I have never had to worry about putting food on my table. This is not the case for everyone, and my heart goes out to all those who struggled this year and the last, and who continue to feel the effects. I also thank everyone who took it seriously, wore your masks and got your shots when you could. Luck is only a small part of it, and the concrete actions of those in my community to stop the spread undoubtedly kept it from my door.
I apologize for being inactive. I have no readers, so I am really apologizing to myself. I routinely commit to my writing. I commit to writing daily, weekly, monthly, or at all, and quickly forget this commitment the next time work is too stressful and I am exhausted and trying to make it through the day. I know we all romanticize the past, but while I was staring at the tiny desk Jane Austen used to write her masterpieces while in her house at Chawton, I couldn't help but think that she had fewer distractions. Don't get me wrong, a writer's compulsion to write is a constant nagging in the back of the mind - but it is so much easier to drown it out with Netflix and trying to stay up to date on what is going on in the world. That said, she only had so much daylight and candlelight to write by, and what with how long it seemed to take to get dressed in the time, plus her lengthy correspondence, maybe she made the most of the time she had.
All that to say, I'm sorry. Though I did stop writing, I only took periodic breaks in reading, which leaves me with 82 books to choose from to review. The perfectionist in me wants to start where I left off, the realist says to only write about the ones that elicited a strong reaction. Maybe I will alternate, or maybe I won't post again until 2024. Your guess is as good as mine.
Get vaccinated if you can.
Holly
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