The Road Ahead (an update)

I regretfully acknowledge that it has, once again, been some time since you’ve heard from me. There are some reasons for this (good, bad, or ugly), which I’ll cover here. In any case, it seemed like the arrival of the new year was as good a reason as any to finally post something. I’ve actually sent an email to my subscribers with similar information, but it also seemed pertinent to have something more accessible out there on the interwebs for those interested.

In short: this last year was quite a doozy for me.

To give the CliffsNotes version (remember those?) I was diagnosed with colon cancer at the end of January 2025. Not long after, I found it had also spread to my liver. I underwent two major surgeries in June and July: the first to remove the cancer and the second due to a complication following the first.

Overall, I spent 27 days in a hospital. Super fun times. After that, I had a three week stay in a Mexico clinic for nontoxic treatments and therapies, which proved quite beneficial.

There remains some cancer in my liver and I’ve been on several chemo treatments for three months at this point. Thankfully, I’ve still been able to live a mostly normal life and also continue to work, just with way less spare time and some extra “low” days thrown in the mix.

While my life has taken quite the unexpected detour and there remains many unknowns, I’ve also been incredibly blessed, loved, and cared for by the support of countless people in my life, some of whom I’ve never even met. Despite or rather because of the challenges, this has undoubtedly been a time of growth for me.

Health issues aside, I’m not exactly sure why I’ve taken such a long break on contributing to the website (several breaks, really). It could be I’ve just got more responsibilities in life now than I ever had before. Maybe I felt like I’d said most of what I wanted to about creativity—especially after releasing my book—and I didn’t think I had much more to add. It’s even possible that recent developments with AI have discouraged me from writing more often. Nonetheless, the idea of writing has often been on my mind as of late.

So, what’s next? Hard to say exactly. I’m holding myself very loosely to any solid commitments for the time being. It is highly likely that I’ll be sharing more about my own health journey as well as my faith and spirituality, likely with shorter posts. But, of course, I’ll still be talking about creativity—just inside of new contexts.

Hopefully, such posts with more personal and perhaps contemplative content is something you’re interested in. If not, well, that’s quite alright, it’s not like I’ll make you read them or anything.

Speaking of which, thank you for reading this and for just being here. Know that I appreciate you and I’m thankful for you. I hope your life is more than pleasant and that this new year is chock full of exciting expectations for you. Feel free to reach out to me for any reason, if you feel so inclined.

~AL

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