Sunrise

I feel compelled to resume writing actual, consistent content for this blog. Autumn is the real time of beginning, when dying plants sow seeds in damp earth, an investment in eventual fruit-bearing. In cold climates like Ontario, horticulturalists must stratify seeds, a process that simulates cold, wet, dark winter conditions. Otherwise nothing germinates. Without fall and winter there can be no spring as we know it.

October always feels like a closing-in. It's a natural response—not clinical—to sleep more, eat differently and withdraw from certain activities. But too much hibernation distracts one from cherished ambitions. It's an easy time of year to lose one's way. I try to balance the shift in energy by regarding it as a kind of New Year's. Jews get it right, celebrating Rosh Hashanah now. My Jewish friend lists areas of endeavour for the coming year.

Coincidentally, she is my writing partner, and we have just completed a course in creative career design, begun last winter. It has involved much brainstorming and goal-setting, but largely it scrutinized personal habits. Creativity is more a process than a goal you can set. Perhaps goals motivate us, call us to engage in action. The specific goal is less important than the forward steps it requires.

This blog has been part of my process since 2003. I have shared fragmentary ideas, presented baubles of literature, and built community. Lately, for various reasons, I have used it infrequently, more to keep friends abreast of life's events. But that is not enough. Eramosa River Journal was conceived for greater purposes, ones that still matter.

This sounds pretentious. So maybe it is. At least it's a foot forward.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."

I do not pretend to have a great mind—and tend to get tangled in events—but would strive for greater. This presents a challenge: to reflect upon ideas, to from opinions and express them. This draws upon a part of the mind I tend to keep private.

Since April, daily walks have given me a time to interact with nature and do photography. Also they offer time away from whatever other things demand attention and emotional resources. A few minutes of clarity near the day's beginning. Space in which to think. Nature is my source.

So, what kind of content? This is difficult to answer, considering various arenas that fascinate me: literature, nature, art, community, queer theory, atheist spirituality, to name a few. The mind tends to go everywhere. Freedom motivates, so freedom must be.