It is Time

During one of my morning meditations last week, I heard this message – It’s time. When I reflected on what it meant, I realized it meant that it is time to start posting on this site again. Here I am. Yet, I feel the need to share what I have been up to since the last blog I posted was in the summer of 2020.

I haven’t gone anywhere, at least not away from the computer for long periods. In the past three years, without posting here, I journaled daily, wrote a case study about my family’s business that got published, coauthored an academic book, and left a 10.5-year career in academia. A bit over a year ago, I moved west with my husband and started attending an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics at the University of Washington - Bothell. Earlier this year, my father passed away, and I’m grateful to have been with him the month before. In the past year, I wrote about my father, I wrote assignments, and I conducted writing experiments that exceeded my comfort zone on many occasions.  It has not been much time without writing, although I did not post here.

It is time, the message was clear. The reality that through the pandemic and since I never fully stopped writing, may not fully explain the reasons for my absence.  It could be that after posting a meaningful article, then focusing on writing in an academic format, and later in experiential ways, I am a bit lost about the shape the blog will take. What came naturally to me before, writing about my life’s experiences and lessons learned, may no longer be the way to go. What happened? How did I get here? I’m not sure but it is time. It is time to show up and find out the next writing adventure.

I do have a deadline for writing my thesis. However, how it will look is not clear. With endless possibilities how does one move forward? I’m reminded of the quote by Lao Tzu “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Here I am taking the first step. Where the journey will lead is unknown, but with each step, I know the path will slowly and likely blurrily, show up. It is on. It is time. Thank you for being a part of this adventure called life, and for returning to read my posts after so long.

I invite you to reflect on “It is time”. If you were to consider it according to this moment in time in your life, what do you need to pursue that you have been avoiding lately? Feel free to share a commitment in the comments below.

On to writing.

Elisa Balabram