On windy days, I open the balcony doors. Atlanta is not as hot as it used to be. Last month, it was cooler than Portland, cooler than Mykonos, cool enough, at times, for me to feel cold.

I’ve been gone for half this year and so occupied July and August that they might as well not have passed. Suddenly, 2017 has four months in it. I’ve accomplished a great deal, but not enough. I’m looking forward to staying put for the rest of this year though I doubt work will keep me in one place. There’s time now for projects and for routine. There’s time now for lessons from Lessing, “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”

There is time now for urgency.

I find myself unwilling to leave the US. I find myself making art, money, friends–progress. I find myself dogged and relentless in pursuit of ambitions. I find myself drowning and baking and cooking. Often I invite people to my home.

I’m lucky to have time for urgency.

I will resume weekly posts on this site though I think I’ll take three months off each year. I will continue my work in fiction and education though the forms these passions took evolved this year. I will resume the reading groups I’ve formed–four months is enough time for close work. And I will welcome all guests. I will welcome all guests.

Just as Naomi Shihab Nye wrote she would.