Idle Hours is a blog that was first conceived in my childhood bedroom.
Someone looking from the outside-in might consider this moment “rock bottom.” But it was actually something much more beautiful.
Picture: 33-year-old Sam, sunken face and heavy heart, still buzzing with hope. Cue the indie folk soundtrack. I’m the protagonist staring out a train window — with a one-way ticket back to my hometown — finally remembering where I came from… and everything that got in the way.
A lot had gotten in the way.
Idle Hours is about starting over and slowing down.
It’s about remembering those late afternoons, where time stretched out underneath an open sky. Where you had nowhere to be and didn’t even know that was a luxury.
It’s about being creative again for the sake of it, being alive again like it’s the whole point, because it is.
More literally, it’s about what happened when I almost died and realized that I’d been sprinting through a life that was meant to be savored.
That my life had taken on the exact shape of everything I feared, so I decided I wasn’t going to be so scared anymore.
I’m asking the question, “Is it too late to try?”
And my answer stays the same: “If you’re still here, there’s still time.”
Idle Hours is the “treasure chest” (read: old cigar box) that’s hidden under my bed. It’s the diary with the lock left unlatched. It’s the mix CD that I’ve burned for you and written on with Sharpie. It’s the roadtrip I’m planning out loud.
Mostly, it’s a collection of thoughts, feelings, memories turned over for meaning, and things that I really like.
And, like always, it’s writing my way back to myself.
The Author
Sam Dylan Finch is a man. He’s also known for some things — mostly his writing on mental health and queer/trans identity, as well as his career as a journalist, coach, and digital media person — but those don’t carry the same weight for him that they used to. Lately, he’s just focused on being himself. He hopes to share his life online in as joyful and generous a way as possible. Idle Hours is his blog documenting this slower phase of his life, until he finds something else he likes to do more. You can find him on other platforms, probably, but he really encourages you to log off for now and find him later. ☀️
Idle Hours 