It’s time to try something new here.

After a rather long time successfully posting to my blog on a daily basis (around two and a half years), I fell out of the habit hard in early July.

The stuff I share here at ethandezotelle.com is, if nothing else, a form of life support for the writer in me. Back in the early days of the pandemic, fight-flight-or-freeze consumed most of my creative brain juices, and I froze up creatively. At least in terms of putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard. 

The ideas kept coming. Fresh stories and revisions to already existing ones. But I couldn’t make the jump from thought to the physical world. It’s frustrating. And the only way I’m going to get out of this mental hole I’ve allowed myself to remain (and sometimes wallow) in is by taking baby steps.

The first step is getting back to making this blog part of my daily writing practice. My writer muscles are seizing up, and I can’t let that happen. I love writing too much, and I know that part of my life’s path goes in that direction.

So starting tomorrow, Nov, 1, I’m launching a new, ongoing part of the blog that not only forces my hand to write every day, but also focuses on gratitude. It makes sense that it starts on Nov. 1, a time when thoughts typically turn toward giving thanks more than they usually do. But I want this to be something that lasts well beyond the Thanksgiving holiday.

I’m also retiring the Care Packages that were once my daily outlet for posting on here. After nearly 1,000 of them, they’ve run their course. At least for now.

It’s my great hope that this change in direction will help rekindle that part of me that’s been reduced to a mere smolder. I hope you’ll join me and see how it goes.