The Arrival of Ebb
Things have been quiet around here recently – those of you who read this blog regularly might have noticed the lack 
of recent posts. Generally, I aim to get a post up per week, but lately things just haven’t been working out that way.
It’s not like I haven’t been writing though, I’ve actually gotten quite a bit done on my book over the past few weeks. I found a whole other line of research that supported what I’d already put forth and spent a few days mired in German texts. Another week, I found some new evidence for another theory elsewhere in my book, so on that front of things, it’s been quite productive. It’s like every time I think I’m done, a new piece of evidence just comes my way in the most random of ways, and I have to chase it down. I am getting closer though with this rewrite/initial edit and am currently looking at my publishing options. So that’s the flood part of this post.
Aside from that though (and the various bits of writing I do for work), I really haven’t felt moved to blog here, and that’s been bugging me for that past few weeks. But this morning, it occurred to me that sometimes there’s a lesson in that.
In the first week when I didn’t post I spent days trying to think of a post to write, but it all just felt artificial and forced. Eventually, I realized that most of the ideas I was having were polemic in some way, and I found that problematic in a ‘low hanging fruit’ kind of way. I mean, who *can’t* just turn on a good rant?
But I don’t want this blog to be that. Sure, I rant on here, but it’s about stuff that has genuinely got my fire up, and I don’t want to get into manufacturing that just because those kinds of posts tend to get more views. Don’t get me wrong, I love that people are visiting my site, but it’s important to me that I don’t just use this platform to tear down, but to build up as well.
And that building up, or more accurately that writing about building up sometimes takes time. Sometimes blog post ideas have to ripen; it takes time before they become the itch under your skin that you can’t *not* write about.
There’s also the season too. I find those final dog days of summer to be pretty sapping in terms of creativity. A lot of people find the darker half of the year to be the time when they go into a more inert and incubatory state, but I’m quite the opposite – this is my ebb. Maybe it’s because I come from an island in the North Sea where grey skies and cooler temperatures are far more the norm than where I currently live; but whatever it is though, towards the end the heat and humidity of Maryland become like the final leg of an endurance race for me and I crave the cooler days. (I’ve even started knitting a cardigan in the hope that I’ll get to wear it soon.)
Because it’s during those cooler days when I begin to emerge and take my daughter out on little adventures again. It’s during those cooler days when I do as opposed to hiding my pasty skin from Sunne’s harsh summer gaze like some strange kind of crysalis-dwelling creature.
And if there’s one thing I want people to get from this blog, it’s the value of doing.
But there is no ebb without flood, and I will be back when my cauldron is brimming once more. I just need to wait for the wave.
