Ok, I didn’t really hear sniffling.

#whatareyoutalkingabout

I blogged on April 1 (I think) and I’ve not done a new one until today. 11 days of no writing, no thinking about writing, no words on a page, no words in a book, nothing. Honestly, it felt a bit freeing to just be a little bit. The Slice of Life March Challenge (writing a post for each day in March) was one of the toughest ones I’ve had in my limited career as a blogger. Usually the ideas come pretty freely, silly things happen in school or at home, or there are newsworthy topics that pop up. This month, I’m not sure if it was the fact Covid was around or that I’m just really, REALLY boring, but I had a tough time writing.

However, that’s not why I’m writing today! I could be writing about:

  • Seeing my parents for the first time since October and giving them both hugs. Last Friday, I was two weeks vaccinated, so our first little trip was to see them! It was good to just sit and talk. On my way out, I got teary as I hugged my dad again. They are “moving to town” because they want to do it on their own terms, which I get. But when they start talking about taking how mortgages, if we want this or that, it starts to make me feel sad that my childhood home won’t be my childhood home much longer. My guess, when they sell, the house will either had HUGE additions put on simply be torn down and new home put up. Either way, it won’t be my home anymore.
  • The lunch my dad bought for us Saturday! He was supposed to come out with us, but he dealt neuropathy with his feet for year (thank you Agent Orange) and was having a bad day. So we went to a place called Newton’s Paradise Cafe in downtown Waterloo. One of the biggest tenderloins I’ve every seen, the biggest onion rings I’ve ever seen, and some of the most friendly work staff in the Cedar Valley! If you are ever in Waterloo, I highly recommend this place! Yummy!!
  • A young black man was shot yesterday afternoon in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. This is a place all ready on edge with the trial of Derek Chauvin, and the result was pretty predictable. I spent part of the night watching crowds growing, both in size and anger and move towards the police station, where, predictably, they were met with “non-lethal” force. I watch as rubber bullets were fired into the crowd, how the assembly was “unlawful” (which it probably was), and all people INCLUDING those there doing their jobs (press) had to leave. Something much change in this country. It has to.

No, I’m writing because my blog sniffled at me. For a long time, my goal was to get at least one hit per day, then to get 100 hits per month, and right now, to get 300 hits per month. My blog was sniffling because I had two out of the last four days where there were no visitors and it was sad.

#please

Really, I’d spent some time away and it was lonely, and with no visitors, even more so!

So, here I am. I feel like writing again. I feel like spring has changed my attitude. I feel like the words will come.

And even if they don’t, there are ideas floating to help them come.

In the end, we need an outlet, and I love that I can write and have a voice in the wind. It’s a small voice, a soft voice, but a voice all the same.

We all need one.

♥️