I deleted the content of my original post, and am re-writing this after posting my second post, fourteen months later.
Why keep the placeholder at all? I’m sentimental, I guess. This digital cairn marks the passage from my old life to whatever was—is—coming next.
I started this Substack as a new year dawned, just days after the closure of my bookstore at the end of December 2022. I knew, instinctively, that the way forward was to create something new. So I did.
And then I fell into a period of silent grief. I could feel my voice frozen—locked in a sea of ice inside my chest.
A year went by. Then a few more months. I felt the thaw begin and started to write my way forward. I posted something—finally—on Holy Saturday.
So here I am, not yet sure where I am going, but headed—finally—in the right direction. Writing has always been my north star. The bookstore was a stop along the path.
If you, Reader, click into this old post at some point in the future, I want you to know that I’m happy our paths crossed like this. Writing and Reading is a curious intersection, and we are time travellers, meeting for a brief moment. I hope that you know what your own north star is, and that you take a moment now to find it again and realign your path toward it.
Thank you for pausing here, with me. Let’s carry on.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." ― Robert Frost