Also, try not to demand things of yourself which are out of your control.  🙂 

The second part of the quote sounds slightly more doable than the first. 

In my previous essay, I cited an uncontrollable circumstance when I gave an explanation for posting less frequently (ok, way less frequently). I pointed as well to a couple of positive milestones since then that led to my return to the blog. 

With respect to one of them, the completion of an initial book draft, I was less than forthcoming with you. I neglected to explain that it’s a manuscript in two sections; it is only the first part that’s finished, the shorter of the two at that. I will be at this a good while yet. Long enough, that is, that I’m choosing not to elaborate on its contents here for the time being. When it’s closer to ready, you’ll be among the first to know.

Unlike some stretches between posts in the past, it feels fantastic, if a little unfamiliar, to be able to account for the absence because of writing, instead of lamenting factors keeping me from writing.

The larger project I’ve involved myself in has to do with the past – which I always say I don’t want to live in. But I do want to learn from it, interpret it, celebrate it (the joys and the survivings). The process can be exhausting as well as energizing; I always want to wrest more. 

I think this field of curiosity – reflecting on one’s past to mine wisdom for one’s future – fits well with Einstein’s exhortation. Maybe it’s one way to refuse to grow old in defiance of the gathering years. That’s my plan anyway.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a train of thought to catch.