As per usual, I feel the same hesitation every writer feels when confronted with a blank space. It is probably one of the reasons why I stopped writing regularly in the first place. At the same time, however, it is also the same reason why just thoughts is back.
Hello everybody, first of all. This is quite an interesting piece to write because there are a lot of different people reading this. There are the ones who only discovered my work recently, over the past year or so and who will see this website for the very first time. On the other hand, there are the people who have known and followed me for years and know the history behind my blog. Maybe it is best to quickly recap the story of just thoughts.
Creating just thoughts
I started writing regularly when I was about 16 years old. Around that time, back in 2014, I also created a blog, which I decided to name just thoughts. Back then I went by the pseudonym Vito Volpe and wrote mostly commentary style posts about literary and political topics. I wrote in both German and English, changing up the language of my posts every other week.
After a while, I started moving away from writing columns and commentaries and began publishing some of my work on this blog. Most poems in my first two books Mondscheinsonette and glaswand were first published right here. Around that time I also started working with two of my then classmates, who subsequently also frequently published on this website.
Hitting a wall and breaking through it
Activity remained more or less stable until 2018. That year I experienced burn-out and general mental exhaustion which finally forced me to take a step back. I put an end to what was back then a huge chunk of my life and decided that it was time to genuinely reevaluate what I was doing and how I was going about it. What followed was without a doubt the most healing experience of my existence so far. I discovered the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and started working directly with my mind, resulting in a more fulfilling and disciplined experience of my day to day life. Together with a friend I went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, changed my career path and published some of my best work with my first English poetry collection halfway to blossoming.
My last post on this blog was in November 2018. After all that has happened during the past year, I started to develop the wish to relaunch this blog. And so it is with great pleasure that I welcome all of you to this exact relaunch of just thoughts today!
New design, new attitude
The new just thoughts does not only come in a new design. I also decided to go “back to the roots” in the sense that I want the focus of this blog to be more on columns and commentary style posts again. Of course this does not mean that you will never see any poetry or short stories on here again, just thoughts will remain an outlet for creativity in many different languages. I also hope to find some people who would like to join me in posting on here. Feel free to shoot me a message (contact@webertom.com), should you be interested in becoming an author on just thoughts.
With that being said, I am incredibly happy to relaunch this blog, which is after all one of my oldest projects. It feels familiar and refreshingly new at the same time, an exciting combination! Thank you to all of you, old friends and new readers alike, and see you soon here on just thoughts!
– T.W.
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My website: https://webertom.com/
Follow me on Instagram: @weber.tom55
just thoughts 