Tentative steps ....

Spent the better part of my Christmas holidays watching my niece learning how to walk. Just shy of one, she would strategically position herself close to the nearest piece of furniture, haul herself up by holding on, take the first tentative steps, and then rush at full speed to the nearest person. She would laugh uncontrollably as she grabbed on to your legs. Mission accomplished!

I felt exactly the same way I think my niece must feel when I logged into my blog this morning. Literally took a deep breath at the sign in page - had turned back so many times before. What excuse would I offer for my self imposed sabbatical? There was so much I could have blogged about before:

• my first Christmas in a decade at home;
  
• the reconnection with my daughter and the tales of boarding school;
  
• the misery of traveling through London - delayed flights, missed planes and the horrible weather;
• the American Airlines crash in Jamaica that broke the plane into three pieces and yet all persons walked away, none hurt, none killed ( most of my Ghanaian friends didn't seem to know about this!);
• the newly imposed tax measures that have the entire Jamaica 'crying' all in the fulfillment of obligations needed for an IMF loan;
• my trip to Accompong, home of the Maroons - so named after one of their generals and looking for those connections to Ghana; kept wondering the if the name was a corruption of 'Akropong' or 'Acheampong' - most of the Maroons were direct descendants of the Koromante tribe;
• My literary trade of the African Writers Series for the Caribbean Writers Series, and the lazy days spent re-reading my old literature books from high school with 'new eyes' and re-discovering and discovering Caribbean authors;
• And the shock when I realized I missed Ghana and 'home'. Unbelievable!
  

I could go on.
Took a couple mins to go to my fav blogs, smiling at the posts as I skimmed through - grabbing at the virtual substance of the Ghana blogging crew. Won't make any promises about full going full speed ahead. But yes, it's good to be back and take my ' first' steps.