Yes, I have been away for awhile. Summer happened. I started this post back in June, when I felt like I finally had a moment to breathe and get excited about the beginning of summer.
Now that summer is almost ending, I'm finally getting around to actually writing this post. It figures.
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I love summer. Even though I'm an "adult" and don't get my summers off anymore, I still love the laziness, the heat, any vacation I can get. I love summer dresses and beaches and bathing suits and big sunglasses and floppy sunhats and cutoffs. I love most things that try to capture the essence of summer -- road trip and summer camp movies and books, those earworms that become the songs of the summer. I love baseball and ice cream and sunsets and I even love the sweat that comes with this godawful Indiana humidity.
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This summer was a full one for me, full of travel and writing and community and self-reflection. I spent time in Miami for the VONA/Voices writing workshop and spent almost 5 days in Rochester, New York, for the ever-feral Pink Door Women's Writing Retreat. A few days ago, I got back from Seattle, where I attended the Gender Odyssey conference with my parents, and caught up with so many old friends from high school, undergrad, and my writing life.
My summer has been packed with travel, heart work, and the best people in the world. It was exactly what I needed to recharge my writing life, and return to my roots. I'm going to write about all of it soon. Maybe even for this blog.
Right now, though, I'm exhausted. Everything has caught up with me. The physical exhaustion that comes with traveling from coast to coast and the emotional exhaustion of self-reflection and writing for the jugular, combined with the exhaustion of balancing all that with having a regular work life.
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There comes a point during summer when I grow tired of the heat. When I just want to be able to turn on my oven and bake or roast something without turning my entire apartment into Hades. When I just want to wear a sweater. When I mostly still love baseball but am kind of waiting for it to end so I can have my life back. When I grow tired of the constant motion and restlessness of travel, and want nothing but rest. When those songs of summer get stuck in my head and overstay their welcome.
I'm not quite there yet, but I'm almost.
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All that is to say, I'm back. I'm ready to begin again, as I always am. This post is more for me than for anyone else, but here we are.