"I went, I thought, I thought I conquered." That would be the extremely short walkabout synopsis, but seeing how it doesn't address several of the questions I left dangling in my last commentary here, I'll expand on it a bit to cover them.

Before doing so, I'd like to once again thank all the individuals who offered me good wishes and encouragement. It was surprising to me that so many people read what I write, and of them, so many were motivated to write me about my imminent departure. To each of you -- your thoughtfulness and support was touching, and much appreciated.

Now then, what did I decide? Well, upon returning, I thought I'd conquered several of my challenges, as the synopsis indicates. I was feeling recharged and energized -- ready to immerse myself back into the fray, albeit with a bit more focus and discipline. In part because of my good friend Hunter's legal scrape in Ohio, I quickly found my time and attention threatened with becoming overwhelmed again, despite my efforts to avoid that.

So, my reshuffling has subsequently been reshuffled. However, many of the insights I gleaned while in the Arizona desert remain the same. First, I remain committed to individual liberty, as a recent essay details. For as far back as I can remember being able of thinking about the issues, I have been interested in freedom; it's something I simply cannot walk away from.

Coincidentally, it was a year ago January that I wrote a piece for DF! that outlined my scorched earth policy. I still feel the same way, and am just as committed to our struggle for freedom. What I have changed is my focus. After a year of trying to address every major issue, trying to write articles, essays, and books, plus maintain a full-time job and be a mother to two young children (not to mention stepmother to three teenagers and a loving companion to two wonderful men and seeing to my own needs and desires), I realized that I was trying to do too much, and was limiting my effectiveness.

My work at Free-Market.Net, especially in the capacity of editor of Freedom News Daily, is demanding and stressful for me. So much of the news is bad news ... and I know I can't meaningfully address most of it. It's hard to be an optimistic, cheerful person in the face of that knowledge. Time spent with loved ones helps cleanse my mind of the depression-spawning thoughts my job often creates. Besides, I want to enjoy my children while they're young; I want to enjoy my life as it is now. A large portion of creating a free life is enjoying one's personal freedom; I've often preached that, but haven't been nearly as good about practicing it. That has changed, and has brought a lot of benefit to me already. I plan to keep it that way.

The items that have been cut out of my life, for now, are my book projects. As much as I enjoy writing, and think that some of the things I have to say would be helpful to some individuals, those are time-intensive, long-term projects that I simply cannot afford to invest in right now. I'm hopeful that I will be able to bring those back into my plans soon, but have no illusions as to my chances of earning an income as a writer. So those projects will most likely be labors of love that I will try to fit in as I'm able, once my children are older and require less of my time and attention. They'll keep; I hope your patience won't be exhausted in the meantime.

Offsetting the delay in those projects, I hope, will be my ability to write more essays and short articles, for publication in a variety of places. DF! will be one, of course, as will my personal web site. Other sites where I've already started sharing my work are The Price of Liberty and Endervidualism. TPoL published an essay titled Law and Liberty; Endervidualism featured No Safe Seat at the Feast. These essays should convince even the most skeptical reader that I'm not backing down. More will follow.

So, my course is still one of "scorched earth, baby", but with time out to enjoy myself along the way. Hence it's a kinder, gentler scorched earth policy. Where the bridges fit in, I'm not exactly sure, but I figured since I could fit three cliches into the title, I should. So there. :-)

As always, do it your way, but make sure to do freedom.

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