“Well, I’m Back,” She Said

Disclaimer: have not been to Mordor (one does not just walk in) nor destroyed any occult jewellery as far as I can recall.
It’s been eleven weeks, more or less, since I vanished on my blog sabbatical, and I have, in that time, discovered a number of things.

Discovery the First: Months of radio silence do not appear to have had a negative effect on my blog stats. If anything, quite the opposite.
Moreover, the old blog – which was mothballed in October 2017 – has done even better. At this rate it won’t be long before I can make a comfortable living being paid not to write, electrifying the world with the richness of my mysterious silences.

Discovery the Second: Farthingales are overdue for a revival. Introverts have been secretly certain of this for a long time; now everyone else is catching on.

Discovery the Third: We could all do with a bit of cheering up. A merry heart does good like a medicine (disclaimer: check with medical professional before attempting to replace any prescriptions with merriness). I hope the unshuttering of this blog will be of some small use in that regard. Possibly that was the point all along, and I didn’t quite realize it.

Discovery the Fourth: I’m tired of dogging my steps with blogging ‘shoulds’. I’m going to blog to no fixed schedule, about whatever takes my fancy, and hopefully even if the subject is not of particular interest to you, the rendition will be sufficiently entertaining, heartening or respiteful (respising? respitionary?) to be worth your read.

Discovery the Fifth: Tatting is most enjoyable, and a great way to avoid touching your face, that hitherto unnoticed human obsession. Dr Sarah Cowie, behavioural psychologist from the University of Auckland, suggests knitting or fidget spinners, but tatting combines the pocketability of one with the creativity of the other, and is therefore a clear winner.

Discovery the Sixth: Better a slightly later better book than a rushed one sooner. My apparently unfounded fear that The Wound of Words is not so good a book as Restoration Day is beginning to ease, and I mean to send the book off into the world properly.

Discovery the Seventh: A rendition of the refrain of the Taizé chant “Bless the Lord, My Soul” clocks in at just over 20 seconds, thus making it an excellent accompaniment to hand-washing. Combine the hygiene of the hands with the recalibrating of the soul while taking advantage of bathroom acoustics. Win win.

As for what I was doing for these past eleven weeks… I stacked firewood, shifted gravel, began learning to tat, ate things out of the garden, set goals and foci and plans, read a great many books, did a great deal of proofreading, preached a sermon, went to a five hour meeting which turned out to mercifully be a four hour meeting (with chocolate cake), read the news, applied for a couple of ISBNs, tried to contain anxiety when chainsaws deployed in neighbourhood, washed my hands, sang… lived.

What have you been up to these past eleven weeks?