Finding the words

My post-holiday blahs lasted far longer than I anticipated. While the past two months have been full of friends, fun and even family - my brother came to visit - I just haven't been feeling all that fired up.

Especially when it comes to writing. While nights out with friends, concerts, sports games, shopping trips and exercise classes keep me enthused, however briefly, words and I have been at odds.

I'm used to curling up in the comfort of the written word. Perfect prose saw me through many the sleepless night or period of angst. It was an escape, a retreat and a treat. Words could cheer me up, pull me out of a funk and whisk me away when the world became too much.

Lately, words have become a frustration. Accustomed to flying fingers, streams of words always at the ready, inspiration always pulling through if even at the last minute, the past two months of struggling to express myself have made me feel off centre. Even reading has lost some of its lustre, with literary pieces failing to captivate in their customary fashion.

Fed up, I decided to give words some breathing space. Scaling back my output, hoping, praying, that my ability to express myself would come back to me. Never strong at communicating vocally, I rely on being able to text and email friends and family to show just how much they mean to me, and to blog to work out the all-consuming thoughts that bounce around my head, keeping me up at night.

Slowly, it's coming back. Maybe I needed that time to live in my own head, as I come up on the one-year anniversary of my life falling apart. Sped by a bit of sunshine, though still at a snail's pace, I'm coming back to words, like an old friend, and finding that spark that drives me to create and communicate again.