I like it when it rains: consuming, creating and nature’s seasons

This past year I have not written for abbyelsociology once. Well, I’ve tried to write down ideas and titles when they come. But I have not sat down and written prose for a year and I’ve just been reflecting on the writing processes for creators. During this year I have consumed a lot: YouTube videos, journal articles, advice from my master’s dissertation supervisor, some more YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Facebook group posts about MLMs, wedding nightmare stories, how to DIY furniture (even though I have not and have no plans to DIY any furniture), TED talks etc. The things I have created in the past year include: a master’s dissertation, an unsuccessful proposal, a successful proposal, Instagram posts, a home for our newly built house (cheesy I know), a wedding, a schedule for travelling Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver. But the one thing I haven’t done is create a blog post.

Now it is October and it has turned colder and it is raining [more frequently than it is in the summer], the outside is quieter with people staying indoors. I recently read a post by Evanna Lynch in which she documented her struggles with wanting to create all the time. She quoted somebody else in the way they mentioned that our creative processes are like seasons. Like nature, we cannot be in full bloom all year round. We need the autumn to reap in our creations from summer. We need the winter to rest and prepare. We need the spring to slowly begin to bloom. And we need the summer to complete our blooming and see it at its height. For me, although I have been in spring and summer for the projects, I mentioned above that I have created this past year. In terms of this blog, I feel as though I have been at the end of autumn/the beginning of winter for the past year and I am now slowly coming out of winter and into spring with this blog post. So, when I say I like it when it rains, what I mean is I like that I am ready to create again for this blog.

So, this post has been very unlike me in terms of the content and writing style. But I wanted to write something to acknowledge the fact that it has been a year and introduce the new layout and banner for this blog [a photo I took from the gum wall in Seattle, Washington]. I will be back to the sociological analysis in my next post. Perhaps, I will sociologically analyse this very post?