On September 22, 2020, I published my first newsletter. To start, I didn't commit to any regular schedule, I just knew this was a habit that I wanted to cultivate. To my surprise, things went better than expected. Despite no commitment, I successfully wrote and sent out an email newsletter every Tuesday for five consecutive weeks. While there were times where I didn't necessarily feel like writing, I felt good about forcing myself to publish consistently and I never felt like I was stripping myself of autonomy. This was a habit that I suspected would be valuable for many different areas of my life, and after beginning to write more often, my suspicions were confirmed.

Today is January 12, 2021, which marks 12 weeks since I sent out a newsletter (the last of which was ironically titled The gift of invisibility). It's hard for me to believe it's been that long, but here we are.

So what happened? Well, life happened.

In October, my grandma developed some new health problems and started to go downhill quite quickly, prompting my Mom to fly out to Alberta to be with her. My dad drove out soon after and the two of them helped care for her until she passed away a few weeks shy of her 90th birthday. During the time my parents were away, my cat got very sick which took up all of my time and attention for quite awhile. He's doing better now, but he was diagnosed with stage II kidney disease so I'm treasuring my cuddles with him a lot these days. Once everyone was home and things started to finally get back to 2020's version of normal, we were into the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. Then I ended up spending the last two weeks of the year working on a big project that took up all of my time but was a huge boost for me in more ways than one. Thanks to the completion of said project, I'm now officially a NeonMob artist (if you're into digital trading cards, you can collect a calendar page for every single day of 2021 here), something that has been on my list of things to try for a very long time.

So that brings us to 2021, where, after the high of actually finishing a project had worn off, I was left aimless and overwhelmed with life once again, exacerbated by a new year which meant a fresh start to get my life entirely figured out in a few days so as to maximize returns on the year (and my life) ahead. Thanks to some recent personal growth, I was able to identify the slippery slope I was headed down and stepped back from goals and to-dos and eliminated all pressures from week number one. Easing into the year was definitely a worthwhile decision and I'm in a much better headspace to re-gear and figure out what's next. Coincidentally, I'm also in the mood to write. It's something that helps me reflect and clarify my thoughts, and I have definitely missed it.

Going forward, I'm still not committing to any specific publishing schedule as it helps me frame writing more as a constructive thing I want to do than as a weekly obligation, but for now at least, I'm looking forward to getting back into the habit and working through life in this way.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Jenelle