How long has it been since we’ve felt “normal”? It has been a long time! I’m speaking not only of the circumstances of pandemics and other pertinent national and world events, but also the resulting emotions that reflect those particular situations. I’m an author, creative and influenced by an ability to observe my surroundings and basically report upon them. Yet for a long while now, I have had very little, if any, motivation to write or notate events. The nation in which I live and the world around me seems dire and strained of those positive influences that normally stoke my creativity in the first place!

I’ve felt bereft of the calm inner spirit that enables fluid observation and the positivity of messaging that was my usual manner of observing and then reporting on it all. I’ve not lost my hope, my faith, or my beliefs, but I have lost some of my calm resolve as a witness to all that is transpiring of late. For the last few years, the upheaval in my nation has seemed so consequential and far too repressive to just blithely note the simplicity of life playing out in my garden, or in what became a trivial topic as a result of all the ruckus of politics.

People say not everything is political, but everything in the last few years has been made political. And so the venom of politics has tainted almost everything from relationships, to our choice of business associations, our media, our entertainment, and as a result, our daily thoughts. My thoughts have been subjugated to the willful repositioning of politics as the all-consuming topic of national preference.

What’s a girl to do?! I must purposefully choose to disengage my thoughts from the all-consuming political frenzy to events, topics, and other observational opportunities not exclusively tied to the combative political realm! Wish me luck! I suspect what we’ve endured the last year or two will not quickly dissolve, but I will do my best to seek a balance through other notable pursuits of subject, one of my favorites being the inspiration found in gardening and gardens in general.