Second Books and Breathing

and…breathe.

I have been learning how to breathe again. Not the automatic kind, but the slower kind, stepping away from people’s noise, not getting involved, holding back my energy on my days off, just being with myself, and of course my husband too. Trying to find some peace, or at least work towards it.

I have realised I have been getting lost in other people’s troubles and issues for far too long. Stuff that does not have to be my life. It is freeing to step back from that, to realise my energy does not need to be everywhere all the time. Even small things have shifted. I have not been going out as much to my local pub, and honestly, I have not missed it. Same old people, same stale energy. It has been nice to just step back from all of it and find a bit of quiet instead.

Days off are slowly starting to feel like my own again. Coffee, cosy candles, notebook open, writing like I used to. Not aiming for anything fancy, just the joy of words under my fingers, letting out the thoughts that swirl around my head, being present with myself.

And finally, I have started working on my second book, See You When I See You. It will be a long work in progress, but I am ready. I will not let it take as long as the last one did, and I definitely will not let it break me quite as much, or at least, I will try not to cry on the floor as dramatically this time.

It is going to be more personal than the first. I am pulling together blog posts and poems about family loss, love, coming out, heartbreak, healing, and everything in between that has made me who I am. All the messy, beautiful bits of my life, growing up gay, navigating love and grief, learning how to hold space for myself, it is all going in there. The cover is ready, the words are ready, now it is just about putting it all together and letting it become what it is meant to be.

That is where I am for now, trying to breathe, reclaiming little pockets of quiet, and slowly building the next book. I would love to hear from you too. How do you carve out your own space to breathe? Drop me a message, leave a comment, or just let me know you are reading. It always means a lot.