Pressing Play

Hello! How are you? It’s been a while….

When I wrote ‘Pressing Pause’ last September, I hadn’t intended to pull a disappearing act. I was reprioritising my commitments as I was moving house, so I decided to scale back from the daily posting routine I had built up during my ‘publish everything challenge’ and write once or twice a week instead. But things got a lot busier than I expected – I managed to write one prompt-inspired post in October, and that was that. By the time things got less busy, I’d lost momentum and the blog ended up on hold for nearly a year. Oops!

Although the blogging was on hold, however, I’m pleased to say the writing wasn’t. Not completely. It got scaled wayyyyyyy back too, but I did manage a few bits here and there. My favourite was delivering a ‘Jotting for Joy’ workshop at my old secondary school on National Poetry Day. It was an honour to be invited and a treat to see how the school had changed in the thirty-plus years since I was a pupil there, and I was so impressed by the children’s creativity – there were definitely more than a few talented writers-in-the-making in the classrooms that day.

In January, I wrote two new poems about cycling after attending a workshop run by Sarah M Jasat, which were published in the Ride On anthology alongside my older poem BBQ Bike. (I will pop the other poems on here soon). In March, I resumed my role curating and presenting a weekly programme for a local Ramadan radio station. Then, over the summer, I worked on a couple of writing projects for a new client, which was a creatively enriching experience as they involved working alongside some incredibly talented digital artists.

So, my pen and keyboard have been used. Just not as much as I would have liked them to be. But I have nothing to complain about, as each new day comes with chance to move a little closer to my goals. I am immensely grateful for that, because I know it is a privilege to be in that position. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to pursue my passion, and a privilege to be safe and have provision that takes care of my needs while doing so. As we have learned in recent times with events around the world, especially in the last year with what is happening in Palestine, none of that can be taken for granted. Be grateful, resilient, and hopeful, always.

Peace and blessings,
Nazira