Since my last post on this blog, I’ve written in other corners of the Web and otherwise, moved cities, had another child, and reluctantly started a new blog, quickly followed by a complete end to my writing presence, online and otherwise.

For a while, friends and readers asked when I would begin again, to which I responded with a sort of sheepish shrug and mumbled comments about my crazy kid(s). And for a while, I didn’t think I needed to write anymore, at least not during this particularly family-absorbed phase of life. But what I have found, as my second child nears her first birthday, is that my brain is actually still writing stories. I just haven’t allowed it an outlet on paper or computer. This has resulted in some totally random Facebook status updates, wild dreams, fantastic monster-tornado-spawned anxiety, and well-placed fears that somewhere down this old Cheerio-scattered road I’ve lost the writer formerly known as Towles.

Which got me thinking about inertia. All things in motion tend to stay in motion, including imagination, creativity, and the desire to write. And the tricky thing about writing, like exercise, is that once you stop, it is really, really hard to begin again. Liken my brain right now to a 350 pound man faced with a fifty yard dash.

But begin again, I will, and I’ll do it here. If you’d like to watch and encourage me as I journey back into the writing life, keep your subscription to what used to be Words, Wanderings and Other Joyful Things, and invite some friends. “The Interior Life” feels like a more appropriate title for me these days. Not that I’m not joyful. I am! Ever more so! But I spend a lot of time indoors with children and within myself rather than wandering and reporting as before.

If you want to unsubscribe, please do. I would say it won’t hurt my feelings, but it might … just a little … and when embarking on a journey like this it is important to be honest.

Stay tuned.