I’ve been looking over the last year. Had two new additions to the Publications Credits page. hey add to my catalog stories people can get to support small press (and small authors ^_^) which is not a small thing at all.
I’ve shifted the focus of my photography to landscapes, and images like this one:
A change which has been greeted pretty positively. My photographs of Chicago over the summer met with generally positive notes, including natives telling me “I was on the same tour as you and I completely missed that.”
Yet…
But…
STOP.
Winter has me traveling down old familiar paths. Through years of counseling, I’ve learn to stop myself and recognize I’m traveling down the same path – a path of ugly thoughts, painful judgements, self loathing and worse. It’s a path I have traveled down most of my life where it is now a comfort to me. The stones, briars, and muggers are all known.
Forging new paths – that’s difficult work. It may be more rewarding, but it’s certainly more exhausting. The conscious effort takes a lot out of a person. It’s one of the reasons I’m mostly a weekend writer. I spend my days in emotional labor or fighting to travel down new paths. When the day ends, and I have time to myself, I’m numb. Exhausted. I want to stop fighting and just rest.
But, I keep going.
I have decisions to make in 2024. Knowing I have limited time and energy, I have to ask myself “Where shall I put my efforts?”
Time to make a plan. Time to pick an unbeaten path, lace up my hiking shoes, and move on. We’ll see where I end up…
Biomechanoid Blues 