I haven’t blogged in a while. I think I simply outgrew my previous blog: the parameters and style I laid out in 2005 no longer suit me, here in 2015. Ten years have gone by since. I’m different now. I’ve changed, I hope, in all the ways that matter: I’m bolder, kinder, stronger, wiser. A better man. I hope, anyway. I’ve learned to hope.

Growth and change are inevitable, even if we resist them. But often growth happens in a spiral. (Above is a picture of my little mint plant, which has doubled in size over the last week, and while it doesn’t exactly spiral it certainly does wind its way along.) Often we seem to be going back when we’re really moving forward. And now here I am, starting again. And I find that I’m glad to be back.

Work on this new site, like all creative work, was all-consuming; I tended to get impatient and annoyed when things weren’t going my way, or when things were going too slowly. So I took an hour off to recollect myself. Put some music on, lit a stick of incense, aligned my energy back towards growth, tuned my mind back to gratitude. Work went much more smoothly after that. One more thing to be thankful for.

Often we stress ourselves out unnecessarily when we’re growing, even when we’re working on our biggest opportunities. And sometimes we have to consciously slow down to align our attitudes and actions with our larger goals, so that we can move ahead faster.