It’s been 75 days since my last post, and I’m feeling it.

The summer is gone, I’m in a new house (eeee!), I have hardly written or kept a routine for the intervening 2.5 months. That being said, excuse this post for being scattered.

Last weekend I went on a second writer retreat with my writing group. As was expected, we got very little writing done, but much talking and fun was had by all. More importantly, we got to re-establish where we were going as a group.

When you write (or do anything) as an individual, you can set your own pace. I get to write or ignore my characters as much as I want to, and the only person whose feelings I have to worry about are my own. If I put off writing a blog post, it’s not like my followers are going to rise up against me. You may be disappointed that I’m not here to brighten your day, but I can handle that kind of disappointment. I don’t kid myself into believing that I’m really all that important.

But, when you work on a group project, you have to deal with egos and schedules, with points of view and disagreements. You have to be flexible. When people don’t act in the way you want them to, maybe you can have some empathy, try to understand why they are acting (or reacting) in the ways they are.

This past weekend with my writing group helped me remember that sometimes it’s important to step back and remember why you came together as a group in the first place. Conflict doesn’t have to break us, and it is unavoidable, but it doesn’t have to break our relationships. It can make us stronger. Our group came together because we wanted to write and be more creative, but we also wanted to support one another. These were the original goals for our group, and when we left our little cabin on Sunday morning, we hoped that these goals would help to bring us together again.

I don’t really have any deep meaning, I just wanted to share a little something. Hope you’re having a wonderful day, and go outside!

“Open your eyes to all the love around you” (Dove chocolate wrapper wisdom for your Monday).