Hello again

Hello?

Hello?

Anyone there?

It’s me. Anna. 

I’m finally back from hiatus.

Why the hiatus? Let me explain.

I had grand hopes for the year. Blog posts I wanted to write. Series of posts. I tried, really I did.

But the internet got to be such a hostile place, I needed a break. So I took one.

That’s the short version. Now for the long one.

Last year, our family went through two elections, both of them messy. The first was in Uganda. Yes, we were safe both while it happened and once it was over. Emotions ran high. I can’t say much because I don’t want to jeopardize our status in the country but suffice it to say next election we’re planning a trip outside Uganda. Just in case.

Our election in the US wasn’t much better. I have Facebook friends from all sides of the argument, and I tolerated all the rhetoric because we live in the good old US of A where free speech is a right and privilege we all enjoy. In fact, hearing a variety of viewpoints keeps me sharp and helps me understand where others are coming from. They’d limited free speech during the election in Uganda. So I stuck it out on principle.

After the election and then the inauguration, the nastiness just exploded. From both sides. I’d already tolerated as much as I could from everyone and was hoping things would settle down. After all, it was over. Not so. 

So I took a break. I had drafts of blog posts I left in the folder and never finished. I was too emotionally drained and sick at heart watching people I admire and love say hurtful things to one another.

The first two weeks I stayed off the internet entirely. Sweet freedom! Then I peeked back in and found I could handle certain news sites, but social media was still a mess. I checked social media about once a week for the next couple months. Little by little, the furor from everywhere has died down. People seem to be more social on social media.

As a happy result of avoiding the internet, I’m almost half-way through my reading goal for the year. We traded in our aging iPads for Kindles. I’ve found the smaller sized Kindle is easier to carry everywhere. I still have several weighty books I need to get through so I’ll need all the buffer I can get.

I’ve also managed to get a decent second draft out of the worst book I’ve ever written. Sometimes I’ve come across sentences in this thing that left me shaking my head. What entity had taken over my body and influenced me to write like that? That said, I’ve read final drafts of books worse than the rough draft of this. When I feel like drowning my sorrows in a pot of coffee and thereby staying up all night, I remind myself of that.

Anyway, thanks for listening. It’s good to be back. 😀