To put it mildly...I have been in a funk. A deep, dark, down the bottom of the well funk that has been the end of a trail of sorrows. It was bad. Really bad.  A "don't get out of bed" bad. A "eat, work, eat, sleep" life with little in the way of sparkle or shine. No laughs. Nothing to laugh about. It was a demon snowball I was stuck in the center of--rolling down the hill, frozen in the cold, singularity of self, and stuck in the heart of frigid sameness. And it was a long time coming--and equally as long a time to unfreeze out of. And I am not fully freed--but at least a little of the sun is peeking through as the time and light is working its way into my heart and head.

This was a time of fixed stares and no interest in reading, researching or drawing. This was a time of knocking on doors that never open. This was a time of silence--not the comforting silence of thought and contentment--but metallic silence of your own prison. It has been a time of reassessment, of the "new"normal. It has been a time of looking at what was real--and seeing it all anew. It has been a time of trial for me--and though I may have appeared docile, I have struggled mightily with much of my lessons--but have come to at least see them, acknowledge them and to some degree accept them--maybe not all of them with joy in my heart, but nonetheless--accept them so as to be able to move forward.