Apologies for the interruption.
...I didn't expect it to affect my newsletter writing. If anything, I anticipated more regular updates. And at first there were.
But December has been an unusually hard month for me, in ways that I expected but wasn't emotionally prepared for. The Camel closing also caught me off-guard, as there had been a plan in place that would have saved it. More than just the psychological blow of losing my haunt (and my bookstore), it created a hole in my writing routine and basically destroyed the last thing giving me any real sense of the passage of days or where we are in the week.
If I wasn't dealing with a fun blend of seasonal depression and just regular depression compounded by heartache, it probably wouldn't have hit me so hard. I might have noticed days slipping away from me when they were a trickle and not a stream.
In the end, my social media break was kind of a mixed bag. It did help me interrupt some less-than-helpful cycles I was getting stuck in, but I didn't get my feet under me to establish better habits in their place.
I don't think that's necessarily a waste, though. With my eyes open to where I am, I can take this blank slate and start building up from it. I'll be using today and tomorrow to take stock and make plans, and starting January 2nd I'm going to build my life the way I want to live it. Regular newsletter service will resume at that time.
Thank you for your patience, and for coming along for the ride. I hope everybody had nice holidays, and that we all have a better 2020.
-Alexandra