This is not for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is a lie, of course; I would not set my challenge without a purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this is not for <\/em><\/strong>anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not raising money for a Noble Cause (not now, not with this) or embarking on a Grand Project or setting forth on some sort of Quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n …Maybe I am doing that last one, a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But to name what I am trying to do seems to me like a way to threaten it as well, and so I will keep that to myself for now, and instead say: Hello again. How are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How have you been?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That last especially seems like a bit of a silly question, doesn’t it; I disappeared from here and from everywhere for over a year because of the Great Sickness that upended everything<\/a>, and I still cannot decide whether things going “back to normal” seems like a good thing or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, I am among the legions for whom it hasn’t been entirely great. I have held up well enough, I suppose; things have gotten done around the house and I have grocery shopped and done laundry on the regular and I have tried to be assiduous about keeping in touch with isolated friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have tried to be supportive, and I have tried to be kind, and I have tried to look after myself, and oh I am not so good at that but I have tried<\/em>. Honestly. With my inconsistent routines and my wavering but earnest attempts at healthful eating and my persistent failure to sleep enough because sleeping seems to steal time<\/a> from the precious chunks of free space that aren’t consumed by the minutiae of adulting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon, within the next few months, I must prepare to re-enter the World. To be in places with more than five people. That will be hard, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps in a way this is training for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And perhaps it is just self-care, of a kind. Set a modest goal, try to meet it regularly, without judgment for one’s failures. Sustaining exercises for the voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s all right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I may be rather timid at first. I beg a pre-emptive pardon for that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And now I suppose we see what happens next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is not for anything. That is a lie, of course; I would not set my challenge without a purpose. But this is not for anything. I am not raising money for a Noble Cause (not now, not with this) or embarking on a Grand Project or setting forth on some sort of Quest. …Maybe … <\/p>\n