Special Announcement/Explanation

Hello, All.
First and foremost, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is looking forward to a Merry Christmas. There is no happier time of year than the holiday season. Whether or not you celebrate any of the upcoming holidays - Christmas, New Year's, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa - I hope that the next few months are pleasant ones for you and your family.

It's been a while since I've posted on either of my blogs, but especially this one. There is a reason for this absence, and I wanted to take a moment to explain it to everyone who reads this blog. You are all such faithful readers that I feel you deserve to know why I haven't been posting for the last several weeks.

To put it quite frankly, I was swamped with many different things and couldn't find the time to write - or, if time did present itself, I had neither the ideas nor the patience to sit down and post. I would say I've hit a writing slump lately and nothing that I draft has sounded "good enough" to post. I am very hard on myself when it comes to writing and I have a hard time posting my work if I'm not completely satisfied with it. I am my own worst critic and in the last few weeks I have been especially hard on myself. I am trying to figure out why I have a tendency to dislike my own work and I have been endeavoring to push past my own anxiety when it comes to posting something. I'm hoping that I will soon be able to publish any blog post without worrying about its content. This will take time and I will have to examine myself to overcome this anxiety, but in the meantime I will continue to post. I do still love writing and this platform allows me to do what I love; I wouldn't give that up for the world.

In addition to my recent writing slump, I have been dealing with some problems in my personal life. I have gone through a couple of  very stressful situations lately, some of which will be detailed in later blog posts, and unfortunately, I fell into low-grade depression because of these situations. While the type of depression I experienced wasn't nearly as bad as what some people go through, it created a dark cloud on the days that really hit me, and I had to push back hard to escape it. Perhaps I will write a blog post about how I did eventually get out of my depression. I have a feeling that my story could help many other people, but for now I will simply say I did escape depression and am feeling much better.

The new year is coming up next week. I may not post any pieces before then but I promise that, come 2020, I will be ready to continue posting in full force. I really do love writing here; I just need a little time to rest, a sort of pre-work break during the holidays.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year and I will see you all again soon in 2020.

Your Author,
Rachel


Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Heads Up!! An Announcement

Hello, everyone! Happy summer to all my readers; I hope you're having a wonderful summer break and aren't too bored yet or depressed about going back to school in a couple of months. I myself just finished up school for the semester and have been relaxing for a couple of weeks. I personally get very bored when I don't have any schoolwork and I find it hard to occupy myself. I end up annoying my mom and or spending too much time on my phone or computer. Since there's nothing else to do, I tend to waste my time on the mindless internet.

In a effort to combat total brain numbing during the summer, every year I spend a week or two up at a summer camp. I've been going to this camp, Lake Lundgren Bible Camp, for almost my entire life and I have filled many different roles in that time. When I was younger, I went up as a staff kid while my dad was the missionary speaker; when I got a little older, I spent a few years as a camper. And now, for the past couple of years, I've spent a few weeks as staff. It's always a really fun experience regardless of my role and I look forward to going back every year. Lake Lundgren has always been a special place for me and the camp has played a huge part in who I am today. I've grown closer to God every year that I visit and I have built some wonderful friendships that I am lucky to have. Lake Lundgren is basically a second home for me and I wouldn't dream of skipping an opportunity to visit.

All that being said, I'm going to volunteer at camp for two weeks this month! I'll be very busy and there is little to no internet up at the camp so, for the weeks that I'm gone, I'm going to be taking a break from both my blogs. I will be a lot less stressed during my busy weeks if I don't have to worry about posting and it will be a nice break during which I can revaluate what I want my next few posts to be. I will resume posting when I get back in August. Maybe I'll even have some camp stories to share with all of you.

Once again, I hope you're all having a great summer and I hope you have some fun plans of your own. Enjoy the sun and nice weather while we have it and I will see you all again soon. :)


Photo Credit: findyourinnerhappy.com