Love of a craft is not in the never having stopped, it’s in the returning.

Most senior improvisors I know will have taken time away from improv, especially after the mad rush of the initial infatuation with the art form. Many blogs are littered with explanations why the blogger was absent or couldn’t keep up with the schedule.

I say this in part to assuage my own guilt. Even something vitally important to who you are can’t happen constantly. We can’t do all the things all the time. All creative seasons are not the same.

The tricky part, for me at least, is in not letting the guilt stand in your way. Not being blocked by the narratives about how you should have been interacting with your art, instead of how you actually did.

An activity I found helpful for this was to perform a creative funeral, which I found in Kelly Wilde Miller’s Creative Dysregulation. You write little eulogies for creative projects and have a ceremony. I’m writing this now (and posting it!) because I was able to put some of my expectations around blogging to rest with this process.

And so, it becomes time to be returning.