I am tired. June proved to be a month too full of travel (I never thought I’d say that) with four trips and two of those unplanned.

But now I am in Portugal on a planned trip that has me for two and a half weeks just hanging out at my friends’ house. I’ve removed myself completely from all the little urgent things that fill my day when I am at home, and now I have the sudden realization that the time that stretches before me is open for me to choose to dedicate it to finishing up the two books I’ve been dragging behind me for many years.

I wonder if this is what it feels like to be on a residency. I am simultaneously full of hopeful expectancy and terrified surety that I will still manage to not use this time for good.