1. It’s always better to slice with special companions. Most mornings found me trying to find room for my laptop among several snoring lap cats, and I always had the tuxedo crew snoozing above me.
2. Most days I felt fairly uninspired when I sat down to write. Ho-hum was my main feeling about writing for the month. There are always a few ho-hum days, but I wasn’t expecting a whole month of ho-hum writing.
3. I felt discouraged when I reread old slices for On This Day. I used to be able to write! I had interesting ideas! I knew how to craft a piece! I used actual writing techniques! Where did all of that go? Is it a matter of not using it much for the last year, and so I’m rusty? Or is my brain broken? (Some days, a lot of days, it feels broken, but I think that’s a state many of us live in now.)
4. I can show up and write even when I’m not feeling inspired. I can show up and write even when I feel like I’ve forgotten how to write. I can show up and write.
5. I wasn’t the most consistent commenter. I rarely had enough time to slice and comment in the mornings before work, WordPress is blocked on my school wifi, and by the time I get home from work, I am trying to get off devices and stop looking at screens. Many days, I only left 3 comments. I know some people stick to the 3 comment suggestion, but I have always been a 15 or 20 or 25 comments-a-day slicer. I tried to make up for it with flurries and blizzards of commenting on the weekends.
6. My favorite thing about slicing is borrowing and loaning slice ideas. I guess it’s not technically borrowing and loaning, because no one has to return anything. But I usually find the seed of my own idea in someone else’s post, and it brings me joy when other slicers find a kernel to write about in something I share.
7. Aside from commenting, my slicing process stayed mostly the same. I’m a morning slicer. I don’t draft in advance (though I wish I did). I keep an ideas document open all the time so I can easily copy and paste the URL of any slice I read that might inspire me to write. I rarely know what I’m going to write when I sit down to write, though sometimes I figure it out while I’m making my coffee and have the first few lines in mind as I’m climbing the stairs to my office.
8. The best thing about slicing, always, is the community. You know that friend you don’t see for years and years, but when you do get together, it’s like no time has passed at all? The Slicing community feels like that friend. March feels like a monthlong reunion, and I’m so grateful to be part of it.
the dirigible plum 
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