I am here to say: this is goodbye, for now.
Blogging has been a struggle in the last few months. At first I thought it was a temporary lull. Then I realized that it had become a chore, something I did not look forward to. The time I spent on the blog felt like time sucked away from my art. When I went out of town this summer, I did not miss the blog for a minute. Didn't even have a fleeting thought about it.
Then I had a minor health crisis (from which I'm recovering and feeling much better in the last couple of weeks). I could not do much artwork at all, which felt frustrating and scary to me. I began to see that I've been wasting energy on a lot of things that do not matter. I want to refocus and to be conscious of my priorities. In order to do the things that truly are mine to do, I need to drop the incidentals - especially the activities that primarily please someone else or that I "should" do.
Now is the time to find my own balance in life, and to listen to my own inner knowing. I am trusting my intuition more and more - and what I hear is that I need to turn inward and to do the creative work that calls to me. So much falls into place when I stop seeking respect and approval from others, which is the trap I fall into when I'm obsessing about my blog stat counter and comments. Don't get me wrong - I think the Internet is a wonderful world, and I'm not going to disappear from it. It's just that I need to give myself a chance to unplug from its incessant hum, if only to remember that I have a whole life without it.
I aspire to be a more joyful Judy. So I guess it's fitting that I finally finished the "spring" banner that says "JOY", and that it graces my last blog post.
I'll leave this blog up, because it's got some ideas that people may want to explore. Maybe I'll start another blog next year, on a very different topic. Or not. Everything changes, and I'm open to the possibilities.
I salute all my readers, and everyone who writes a blog. You are amazing. Really.
Thank you, and namaste.
