Things come and go in cycles. Personally, I move forward through alternating phases of creating/collecting/connecting and destroying/discarding/distancing, and over time it averages to some kind of fragile equilibrium.

Toward the end of last year, however, the latter was lasting much longer than it felt like it should have. I had decluttered—physically, digitally, and mentally—to the maximum extent that I could have, and yet it still did not feel like enough. I was spinning my wheels and the creativity still would not come back in any form. I slumped into passive consumption.

Vaguely, I held on to a faith that all of this was an unconscious part of “making room” for something new. But what? It had better be big, I thought, to warrant such a long dry spell.

It hasn’t disappointed. My foray into the world of perfumery has recharged me and opened to me a restoration of the sense of wonder. I’ve only just pulled back the curtain, looking into this world from a few baby steps past the edge. The battery of potential is at full, my anticipation is yet undimmed by the toll of reiteration, and any possible future disenchantment is held at bay by sheer cluelessness.

For all of this, I am immeasurably grateful. For wonder is the gift that keeps on giving—yet, as time passes by, is also the gift that is hardest to give.

So make room.