Useful discoveries:

Daily phone calls are a life-line.
Little gifts go in the mail.
Bread comes out different every time.
Painting, collage are worth doing.
Whatever activity, push past awkwardness: you are getting somewhere.
When nothing seems to work, stop, breathe, then try something different.
If you can’t do anything, tidy up.
Art, like life, is a dance between flow and attention. Be easy on yourself.

For me, a way in has been color. Take two or three colors, see what lies between them. Add white and black. How far can you go? Light to dark. Pure to grey. Infinite steps between. Sink into the discovery.

Build confidence.

Reacquaint yourself with your tools.

Slowly move down the path back into creativity.

Thinking about not-thinking (and what a relief not-thinking is now) brought Zen and the Art of Archery to mind. This description of how the teacher prepares reminded me of how cleaning my studio is a reliable way back to work:

“The preparations for working put him simultaneously in the right frame of mind for creating. The meditative repose in which he performs them gives him that vital loosening and equability of all his powers, that collectedness and presence of mind, without which no right work can be done.” - Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

Sort through your stash. Arrange your brushes. Begin.