Sundays in Cincinnati Redux

This Christmas season has sent me back, back in my mind to Christmases past, and then back in fact (to check the facts) to earlier posts in this blog and even to its predecessor, Sundays in Spain. It has been a year and a half since I last posted. Circumstances have changed. First I noticed that I was just too busy to post about my new life in Cincinnati. Then, my new life gradually became less new. For many months it seemed that the need to write was not high enough to take the time. I had also found a specific activity that occupied most of my Sunday afternoons, so the habitual occasion was disrupted. Posts were few and far between, and then they ceased altogether. Some of my family and friends asked about Sundays in Cincinnati, and then they stopped asking.

Today, after re-reading some of my thoughts from years past so as to ascertain dates, and after realizing that my mind was not going to get any better about remembering events, I thought I might reengage and write again, if only for myself. My original reasons for writing were to write "for the discipline of writing, to concentrate on something positive and/or thoughtful, and to keep friends and family up to date with what is happening in my outer and inner lives."

Obviously I have fallen down on the discipline. I wish I could say that I was writing in other venues, but other than a monthly essay for the Scandinavian Scribblers group, I have not done that consistently either. Keeping family up to date on my life is no longer a reason to write a blog--I am in daily touch with my close family by email, and in face-to-face contact with them in our monthly "Sisters Brunches." I have many Cincinnati friends whom I also see face-to-face monthly or weekly and by email and phone (a communication tool that was missing from my life for the dozen years I lived in Spain), so keeping these friends up to date on my life is not a reason to write. Indeed, I run the risk of too much revelation of personal matters if I write about some events and my thoughts about them. But it is becoming evident that--in spite of Facebook--I am falling behind in keeping in touch with friends afar, in Europe, especially, but also friends elsewhere in the U.S. This is a very good reason for writing again.

Sadly one of my faithful former readers is no longer living. Her sudden death has been a shock to me this year, and a very sobering experience. She was a writer friend, too, and I can't help but think that if I write now,  I am also writing to her. Totally ridiculous, but you might want to take a look at the book Often I Am Happy (Tit er jeg glad) by Jens Christian Grøndahl, and you will perhaps see that I am not alone.

The other big reason to write again is "to concentrate on something positive and/or thoughtful." Now more than ever, I need to concentrate on something positive. The nightly news report is heartbreaking, and I have reached an age where loss is more prevalent than expanded possibilities. Still, there is continued life, and as a new friend reminds--and demonstrates--frequently, "Attitude is everything." Attitude and reflection, and then, writing. I will try.