So in an effort to kick start a regular blogging schedule, I thought that I would enroll in the Blogging University and do the Blogging: Fundamentals course. And here I am…
First, I’m trying to remember why I wanted to blog in the first place because I actually started blogging a handful of years ago, but I could never seem to make it a habit. Nonetheless, I do remember why I started blogging. I wanted a place to share what was rattling around in my head in the hope that someone else might not feel so alone if it was rattling around in their head, too. Then I picked up blogging again because I was frightened at the new habit that people had of cancelling out someone with whom they disagreed. With my library background, my inner “free speech beast” came roaring out of the cave. I don’t have to like what someone else says or thinks, but I know our country is in dangerous territory when we don’t allow ALL people to express themselves equally. It is too close to countries led by dictators who kill those that disagree. Sometimes I look around today and wonder just how close we are to that, but ironically, the danger is not only from the side I would have expected.
But I digress.
One of the writing prompts asks what topics I will blog about, and I discovered a long time ago that I’m not a one topic kinda gal. I like writing what’s on my mind, spirit, and heart. I like blogging about a really good book. (Speaking of, I just finished the book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has learned one thousand different things during your career as opposed to specializing in one area.) I love telling about the funny (or not funny) things that happen to me at work and in life because that is everyone’s life, and I want you to know that it never just happens to you. Now that I think about it, I may write about cooking and crafting and writing and Bible study and weight loss and love and faith and anything else that pops up in my head. Who knows? Certainly not me, and I inhabit this crazy mind!
Who do I hope to connect with? That’s one of the questions they ask you to contemplate, and I would say that I want to connect with anyone who just wants to connect in a positive way. This pandemic has been such an interesting (both good and bad) time that I want to connect with anyone who just needs or wants connection. Connecting with strangers takes me outside my comfort zone in person, but connecting with strangers online is right down my alley. How odd is that? And I’m okay with odd. Normal is overrated!
I was intrigued with the question of what I hoped to accomplish after a year of blogging. I don’t think I planned that far ahead. I used to plan that far ahead, and then life happened. I realized just how out of control life actually is, and I stopped trying to plan everything. Wouldn’t you know that it felt like all the elephants jumped off by back when I stopped trying to be in charge of every little thing?! Most days now, I just do my best to work day-to-day, and when that fails, I aim for five minutes at a time. Yeah, I’ve been there, and I know that others have too. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to get by when five minutes at a time is all you can handle.
So here’s to a new beginning with my writing, and I hope here’s to a new beginning to helping someone else.