Look, y’all, it’s 2018!

And where have I been? Rather than start by relaying everything I’ve missed or been doing, let’s just start where we are. Right in the middle of it. In medias res.

Did you know that overwhelm is a real thing? This is probably not news to you. Honestly, it’s not really news to me, either. I think we are all pretty overwhelmed by something in our lives. My overwhelm is probably a little bit different than yours. And that’s a verified Martha Stewart Good Thing™.

I think overwhelm is why I have avoided writing. What do I say? It’s going to take forever to catch everyone up on all the things I’ve done, seen, whatever. I’ve kind of been feeling that way since 2018 started. There’s so much to say. I’m overwhelmed.

I spend weeks or months kicking myself for not saying anything, knowing that I should say something, and then, for whatever reason, one day (and it turns out that this day is February 12th), I decide to just open up Notepad and start typing.

So, here I am. In medias res.

In some English class or another in school, we learned about narratives that started in medias res: works of literature that began in the middle of action or the events in the book. Past events and exposition are revealed in various ways, but you don’t experience those events in real-time.

For now, let’s just say this is a narrative that is beginning in medias res. Maybe I’ll explain what’s been going on, where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing … but let’s just start here, in the middle of the present, the now.

I look forward to writing even more frequently and voraciously as I realize that it’s not necessary to recount the past, but merely describe the present. I don’t have to go back and write a history.

I can live in the now.

In medias res.

Photo by Dana Marin on Unsplash