Making Space in the Ebb and Flow

So, the blog was quiet for a while. Quite a while.  Actually it was "private" for quite awhile, so effectively it didn't exist.  That was a decision I made when life was getting fuzzy in the world of tenure.  I got concerned that maybe the blog was an outlet for unhappiness, and that wasn't what I wanted to put out in the world.  I set it to private and moved happily along. A few months ago, I was contacted by someone on Ravelry looking for my "patterns".  I think of them more as recipes.  It got me thinking about the good ol' blog.  For a while think was all I did.  Many things have changed in my life and I wasn't sure there was the space or need for this anymore: I still science (now with tenure).  I still knit (not quite as much).  I still have hobbies (some new ones to share).

I'm still a wife. I'm still a woman. Now I'm a mother too.  I've changed.  For the better.  As it should be. 

In the past few weeks a few things have made me think more seriously about rejoining the blog, and more broadly the community.  n light of the recent election and the abundance of negativity in the world, we have shut off the news and turned down the Facebook.  This left space. Space to think. Space to be. Space to re-engage. As part of this, I've rediscovered podcasts as a way to pass the time while I drive, and the universe seems to be leading me to a common theme:  You get what you give and you are more than one thing.  

So maybe there is space and need for this.  Maybe I still have something to say.  But something that spreads joy and not angst.  Truth, but compassion.  So for know that's where I am.  In the space between the ebb and flow of life.  We'll see where it takes us.  I'll leave you with this quote heard via Elizabeth Gilbert's Magic Lessons Podcast episode 1.  It inspired me today.  Maybe it will inspire you, my imaginary blog reader as well.

“I think of my writing simply in terms of pleasure. It’s the most important thing in my life: making things. Much as I love my husband and children, I love them only because I am the person who makes things. I am who I am is the person who has the project of making a thing. And because that person does that all the time, that person is able to love all those other people.” - A.S. Byatt

Next time we'll talk about what's been going on in my knitting world, and maybe in my science world, and likely in my stationary world.