Are We Back Where We Started?

It’s the start of a new day. I just signed off a 5:30am zoom call where sharing space through writing in community is the focus. For a while now, I’ve wanted to get back into the groove of writing (and sharing) because it was something I enjoyed at one point. Admittedly though, performative creativity wasn’t enough to keep me consistent. Imagine doing something because you love it and then having to do it because now (the story you told yourself) is that people expect it on schedule. It takes the joy out of doing the thing and makes the work feel like work.

Being a writer has been such a part of my identity for so long that even though I haven’t “written” any public work outside of Instagram captions in a few years, the people who know my name immediately identify me as a writer. In some ways, it’s warming to know my work has had such an impact on folks that they still cling to pieces from nearly a decade ago. At the same time, it stings a little to know I have stories deserving to be told but have been so far in my own head that they rarely make it on paper.

So… are we back where we started? Not necessarily. My intention is not to take us back as much as it is to bring us together, in real time. So much about the way I view, and experience life has shifted since we first started in 2014, and I believe many of you have taken new form as well.

Can we talk about the leaves that have dried out, the branches broken off, and explore the depths of our roots? Can we do it honestly? Genuinely, without the expectation from you that I’ll write it and without the expectation from me that you’ll read it? Can we get back to enjoying the craft and sharing the gift for no other reason than because it feels meaningful to do so?

I follow the flow wherever it takes me, and to no surprise of my own, it brought me back to the very thing I thought had left me. It’s brought me back home to myself and my truth. 

- Yolanda Danae