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I'm baaaack!

Hard to believe that last entry was almost three years ago! Many moons ago, I set this blog up to chronicle our journeys. Once we were grounded a bit more, it kind of lost its way. I spent some time working on my writing offline, taking on different projects and working full time as a technical writer. It was difficult to keep this blog up. Not for any real reason I can articulate. Just had my words redirected to other avenues for awhile. But, I'm pleased to say, after over a decade away, we are back in the UK, living and re-experiencing a place we enjoyed in the mid-2000s. Social media has certainly changed the way we look at blogs. I'm excited to navigate this new world, explore just what people post, what people read. What's better on one of the many new platforms and what's still appropriate for good old fashioned blogosphere. For now, here's a peek at where we're staying -- in a pretty little village just outside of Oxford. A temporary home
Recent posts

Room with a view

We've been in our new home for 10 weeks nos and it's feeling more like home than ever. Every day, I sit down at my desk to the most inspiring view. A collection of stories is building. This space makes it easy to gather my thoughts. I've been consumed with a few work projects and am looking forward to collecting my thoughts soon. Writers club is still going ... I was on a bit of a hiatus but hope to get into my routine for fall. For now, boat gazing is helping.

Written words

I've taken 2013 to develop my craft offline. I'm slowly realising that there is value for me to put words down on a regular basis that potentially do not fit the online space. I'm still living a life if discovery, still leading a life filled with a focus on change and new adventures. I hope to eventually share here, find a way to come back to this space with a fresh perspective. The second half of 2013 may just be the sweet spot for this activity. I've joined a writers' group & have begun to craft some of our travel journeys. In 3 days time, this will be my view so I certainly won't have an excuse for inspiration

Focus

My regular journaling has significantly improved my mood. I've been taking some time, twice a week, to polish existing content as well as develop my floating ideas into a more concrete outline. I've felt this focus for the last 6 weeks that I can't really describe properly. It's as though I've shifted my thinking totally. Writing is my craft. It's what I do, who I am, how I exist. It's like my mojo. So, I guess, I've gotten my mojo back. My focus, my purpose, my essence. And it feels good. It feels right. And I am almost understanding more now why the best writing of the best writers happens when they are older, more polished, more experienced, more rough around the edges. When all the youthful spark has been extinguished and what's left, is the determined embers, that will not go softly, that will not die out. That will continue, fervently glowing, creating warmth and not just drawing attention from its flicker, but pulling people in by it

One thing

It's that time of year again. That time when we all decide to become a little more of our better selves. It's a good time of year to commit to something, even if just to say you're going to try to make it happen. And, even if things don't change and perhaps you even fail at whatever you were resolving, it's actually just the action of pledging change that really brings the most benefit. And so, this year, as I'm sure most writers are pledging, I pledge to WRITE. MORE. Not necessarily blog more. But write more. Keep the act of it going. Commit to treating it as my craft instead of my hobby. Promising to keep it a hobby at heart but a skill in practice. I've started a daily journal again - one page per day -- of anything, really mostly a rundown of what I did that day. Or heck, even a bit of stream of consciousness of what's banging around in the old head that day. C/O Moleskine Official Site I also bought another daily Q&A book that

Do, try not

Create for the sake of creating. And don't lose sight of that. Plants grow. Birds fly. Beings breathe. Creators craft. Don't let the buzz of it all cloud your view. Sometimes, it just has to be done, if for no other reason than it's not yet been done.

In Remembrance

" In Flanders fields the poppies blow       Between the crosses, row on row, ." When I was eight years old, I carried the Canadian flag in the Remembrance Day parade for our Brownie unit. I can't really remember when I realized the importance of November 11 but I can only imagine that somewhere between learning about that day at school and taking part in a very solemn ceremony that it must have been ingrained in my head to always mark this day.    "That mark our place; and in the sky    The larks, still bravely singing, fly" I remember growing up, the assemblies at school, always with a older veterans, in those days many from both World Wars, would attend. When I got to high school, I remember not being able to fathom how these decorated men and women, had once been my age, had once stood up and fought, and had made these decisions during the same years I would try to decide which route to take from English to Science just to maybe catch a glimpse of