Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Of Healing and a Hiatus-- and My 100th post!

 Thank you for your kind wishes and good thoughts, all. My surgery in May went exceptionally well, I began healing quickly, and I'm starting to feel close to normal in some ways, as of this month.

 Nowadays I'm into other kinds of healing too, having begun the creative recovery program known as The Artist's Way, from the book and class by Julia Cameron (with Mark Bryan). I recommend this program to anyone wanting to wake up their senses and creative life, not just artists of all types.

 I wasn't fully asleep, mind you; but being sick for years throws you into vast realms of mental sludge, and I felt I could use the help in climbing out. It was begun on a whim, sidelined by obligations for a couple of months, and now I have begun again. I'm enjoying the challenges set.  each day, you must write several pages of longhand whatever-comes-out, and each week, there are tasks and a date with your inner artist, to help you restock your creative koi pond with fresh wiggly delights.

Jellyfish! Dangerous, like all art-- but pretty.


 To dedicate myself more fully, and to help get my emotional juju with food back, I am taking a hiatus here on this blog, for a full year. A Full Year.


 Yes! I will return in January 2015, to reinvent this place for food writing and exploration. Friends, even when my health issues were getting better, my life had become a little static, a little too contained to feel I had something of use to offer food-wise. And I recently left my long-time food community, the CLBB, due to a growing lack of inspiration there, and some unpleasant forum conversations. C'est la vie-- we can but be who we are, and if we are not valued for that in a certain place, then why stay? Anyway, I have left behind many things in the last year, but I'm not going to leave this blog swinging in the wind. I never let sleeping blogs lie... I kill 'em off or rejuvenate them instead.


 So-- till next year, I thank you, and I have appreciated your interest, care and comments. Feel free to check back in a few months, as new roads may lead me to a new blog, a new focus. I will surely be checking in on the blogs linked here, and I suggest you do the same, because they're awesome, creative and well-written.

 And seeing as this is my 100th post, may I suggest that if you haven't read me from the beginning (and no one, I believe, has) you may want to go back there and read some older posts. Some good stuff there, and hopefully, thought-provoking work.


 Peace, joy, discovery, tastiness, and a very happy new year to you--

                                                                                                 Mari