It has been quite sometime since I wrote any blogs or shared anything substantial on social media. In 2020, I made the decision to leave Facebook, and have begun the process of slowly navigating away from Instagram, in search of new ways to show up as an artist online. Goodreads is one place I've been hanging out, and although I have a newsletter on Substack (dreamfield.substack.com), I've been a bit of a lurker over there. I'll get into a rhythm again. Lastly, the blog on my website is another place I feel will come alive again this year. When the things of life are uncertain and changing, it can be a challenge to gain clarity about what you're even supposed to be doing, or what to even put out there ;)

Something I have learned throughout this transition in my life -- from a young mother and photographer, to remarried and embarking on new journeys of writing, illustration, and librarianship -- is that you get to decide where and how you will present yourself.

While we have been heavily conditioned since the early onset of MySpace and Facebook to be constantly present in the online sphere, I have found that less is more, and less is true.

Especially with so much life to tend to, it stopped feeling normal to be so available. It also didn't feel genuine to continue show up as I was before, and I needed to sink into the new world I was adjusting to as an empty nester, new wife, and now a graduate student. You simply can't convey these major life changes on the internet, and you shouldn't have to. Spiritual transitions, career shifts, loss, and love can only really come through in your most tender expressions, which may take heaps of time to feel ready to do.

Writing and creativity is my Nesting place, here in these quiet Appalachian foothills -- and that is not always a thing to be displayed.

The work you do in the world should be something that fuels you while at the same time, provides you with a sense of rest. This is not to say that you will not suffer in ways, in fact, I have shifted my perspective around suffering entirely. While suffering in some sense is inevitable, so is joy. Without clinging to either, to move forward and find what grounds you is key. To think of how your offerings shift the energy of the world in some way, to move others, shapes you. Then, to hold those revelations close to your heart, while giving most of yourself away at the same time builds character, confidence, and courage in ways you wouldn't have known.

It also creates real relationships and genuine connections, moves you deeper into your life's work, and guides you forward.