It seems that I may have moved a few things down the priority list over the past year. Unfortunately, writing has been one of them that languished near the bottom. Every so often, a spark would fire in my brain; an amusing comment about the recent demands on the profession, or an observation related to the breakneck pace of market changes, would flicker and dissipate before I had the chance to commit those thoughts on paper.

It might be a form of burnout, but with every month that passed without a completed article, the mental pressure began to rise. This was a strange phenomenon, as writing had always been my solace; a safe place to reflect and find silver linings amongst the shadows.

One night in early April, I had checked in early to a Sydney hotel room. Catching up on some messages, it dawned on me is that we were quickly approaching a huge milestone: the 10-year anniversary of this blog! In my fervor to finally chase an inspiration, I clicked on my PharmAspire bookmark, typed in my username and password, and lo-and-behold, was met with the following message:

‘For security reasons, your account has been locked. Please click the following link to reset your password’.

With the recent uptick in cyberattacks across the globe, it has been prudent for many services to impose a form of 2-factor authentication. As I hadn’t logged in for way too long, these changes occurred in the background at some point. No problem, I tell myself, I’ll just follow the link and reset.

Big problem.

The rescue email I had originally used to set up the site was on a friend’s server that was now defunct. Another method I could have used to identify myself as the user of the blog would be to provide my initial welcome email confirmation when setting up the site. Did I mention that the email account was no longer available, and that it was 10 years ago? The third way was to provide a transaction code for a paid subscription to the website. That didn’t work either as the site was free when I joined.

Thankfully, through a contact I have with the parent company for WordPress, I was steered in the right direction and was able to prove this collection of content, many of which contain fanciful metaphors and questionable sentence construction, has been created by yours truly. To be honest, I haven’t felt that sense of relief in awhile.

This is a short post. I haven’t spent the proper time to edit so forgive me for the rough nature of the prose. As I ease back into things, I’ll quickly sum up:

• I had lost access for a short while to the site, but am now back up and running
• Thank you to those who have pushed me in the past year to get back to writing; the pharmacy profession has been facing its share of challenges, but we’ll continue to find and talk about all the amazing things being done to improve patient care.
• It has been WAAAY too long since I’ve written anything for myself. The break was necessary, but I’m ready to rediscover my passions.

For those who have followed me for some time, you may be aware that I have been dabbling in musical theatre over the past 5 years. The pandemic interrupted many productions, and this current project is 3 years in the making, with multiple stops and starts due to gathering limits. I have been cast in Jesus Christ Superstar, with a run this coming weekend from Jun 2-4 in Wolfville, NS.

If anything could inspire a few future posts, it’s the magic of storytelling on a grand scale!

Stay tuned…

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.