A year ago I decided to put aside my PhD – actually it was almost 14 months ago, before the Covid craziness started. After putting together a realistic project plan that showed that it would likely be another two years before I could finish it, I realized that I just wasn’t up for it. I had had enough. It was 10 years after I started, with two leaves of absence – I was done and ready to take control of my life back.

When I stopped, I had two projects in mind. A book or other publication associated with my PhD (and this blog), as well as a book associated with our Going East blog. A year later, I have not started either. I’ve been too busy with teaching and working on making Treehouse Village Ecohousing a reality (we are over 70% sold and start construction in a couple of months!)

Of course, there has also been managing Covid in the middle of that, an increased teaching load, and a move to Nova Scotia during a global pandemic. And now a new puppy, who is cute as a button but a ton of work. But really, how much of that is an excuse. If I really wanted to start, I could have started, but inertia is a difficult thing to overcome.

With the semester winding down, and not teaching this summer, I am finding that I have more time to think about it. I made the first baby step. I created a directory and after writing this blog post, I’m going to create a Scrivener project – actually I may create two, so I can flip between the two projects. They are very different in nature, and doing both will allow me to spend my energy on the one that is meeting my needs in that moment.

Moving to Nova Scotia has meant that I have not been living and breathing breast cancer. I actually go days without thinking about it. It is rarely top of mind. It has been a breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively.

And now to take a deep breath and just start!

Feature image by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash.