Hello Friend,
I have been taking some time after graduating to rest and restore myself. When the pandemic hit I took a gap year and spent that time working on the prairie. Working with the land every day gave me a lot of time to think and daydream. I was at my most creative because the prairies, forests, savannas, and small towns just filled me with ideas and inspiration. I wrote a novel in this time, my first book. Specifically, I wrote it over the winter. The dormant season when there was less work to be done on the prairie and many inhospitable days when it was too cold or snowy to work. With a friend, I rented a room in an old school building turned park district and we turned it into a lovely studio. I would go there several times a week to get some writing done, meet the word goals I set for myself. I started writing in the fall and finished the first draft in March.
Right now, I miss this time so badly. I was so close to some of my best friends. I was doing work that put life back into me instead of taking it out. I was taking really beautiful and cool photos while I was at work so now I can look back at it with much more nostalgia than is probably warranted.
The world began to make sense to me in terms of seasons. The warm months were for growing and gathering. For doing and living and venturing out. The colder months were for turning inward, tending to your roots, reflecting, and writing, storytelling, sharing.
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