I’ve been in a bit of a rut…

Hi friends. It’s been a while. I’ve been in a little bit of a rut lately, and I haven’t known what to write about here - or been able to find the motivation to write.

I have lots of ideas - more trip itineraries, part 2 of my astrophotography tips and tricks, general photo editing advice… and lots of ideas for my Patreon, too! I’d love to do a livestream of a photo editing session while I chat with you guys and answer some questions. I’d also love to take your suggestions for my next cell phone wall papers.

But against the background of all this, I run up against two issues. The first is that I feel like I’m creating into a void. Hiking content and photography content is such an oversaturated market, and trying to get a foothold is hard. My photos get hardly any views, my reels do hardly any better, and I have 1 Patreon member (hi, mom!). And I’m not saying this to complain. I take photos because I love it, not because I want social media clout. But it is so easy to get burned out and so hard to want to continue creating into this landscape. I sold some calendars this year, and I think I’m just about ready to try selling at some markets again, though it’s a little too late to get into this year’s holiday markets. But I’ve just been feeling a little disheartened and burned out, and it’s made it hard to want to write here and keep up with social media.

The other issue I’ve been facing is that I haven’t been hiking. Yes, as I’ve mentioned before, I do have a backlog of topics that I could write about. But I haven’t been hiking because of an injury, and it’s just made it so I don’t feel like writing about adventures. I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my foot, which isn’t healing the way I (or my doctor) expected, and it’s sent me down a whole journey of trying to determine if I have a connective tissue disorder - which would obviously be a bummer, but would be nice to know so I can do the proper exercises to avoid this (and things like this) happening yet again. In the meantime, however, I’m supposed to be resting, and it’s driving me bonkers. I was getting into a good rhythm of dance classes and longer walks with my pup, along with weekend adventures, and that’s just ground to a halt while I try to take it easy. As you may be aware from a couple of my past blog posts, I’m not great at taking it easy.

So - I’m still trying to figure out how to take care of myself, both mentally and physically. I know that’s definitely a journey-not-destination sort of situation, and I’ll keep doing the best I can with the information that I have. And if sometimes that means stepping away from the blog because all my spoons (or spell slots, or whatever metaphor you want to use) are going towards my health, I have to remember that’s okay. Hopefully, you’ll still be here when I get back :)

And besides, none of y’all need trip itineraries in this weather, do you?