I so feel this. I stopped writing/publishing on Medium for nearly three months between April and June this year, partly because I felt burnt out by all the chatter about curation, money, and hustle, hustle, hustle. (A clue to the other reason for my silence was my last published poem at that time, ‘April Fools’…) It was actually peaceful to have some time away from it all, but it also meant I wasn’t writing much during that period (and for various reasons, wasn’t ready to) – and it also seemed, when I dipped my toe back in, in late June, that the whole landscape of Medium had changed, in the time I was away. It’s good to be back – though it’s still feeling like a very stop-start journey at the moment, after much of the epic work I produced last year – and it’s been great to meet so many new and talented writers (including you, Jenny!). But when the chatter starts up again on curation and hustle and how much we earned, and money, money, money – sometimes I feel like fleeing again.

But if I come back to reading all my favourite writers, and really sinking into their work – well, it’s times like that I feel home again. 💚