Fifteen years of blogging

I started a blog

Fifteen years ago.

I didn't know how.

I'm not exactly tech-savvy.

But somebody told me that Blogspot made the process pretty easy so I tried.

Sure enough it was.

Easy enough for this 60-year-old to feel like I was writing a blog.

Kind of.

Sort of

Although maybe it felt like I was pretending…

I didn’t really know what to say. Experts would not recommend starting a blog if you didn’t have something to say.  Or until you figured that out.

But hey!  I decided to give it a shot.

Because you see… 

I had heard myself saying… or at least thinking… that I might want to be a writer, but didn’t know what that might mean.

I really had no idea where in the world to start.

I was lucky enough to bump into some people who encouraged me rather than laughing at my silly idea and I eventually came to the conclusion that I could call myself a writer if I was writing. That might have been about the time I heard of the idea of starting a blog.

Oh, yes; I was starting to say…

I decided to give it a shot.

To start a blog.

And so on January 9, 2010, I set up a Blogspot account, make up a quirky little name for my blog, and typed some lines that became my first blog post.  

• I wonder if I should start a new blog.
• I wonder if I can be consistent about blogging regularly.
• I wonder what I should include in my blog.
• I wonder if I should establish certain patterns or routines.
• I wonder if anyone will read my blog.
• I wonder if anyone will like what they read.
• I wonder if anyone will comment…
• I wonder if any of this matters in the greater scheme of things.

I guess I wondered about a lot of things.

Then I realized I must figure out what in the world to write about and how often.  Turns out the experts have opinions about those questions, too - like how you must build an audience and you must post often.  AND consistently!!!  

Wise rules I’m sure, but I might have had the sense to know that I wasn’t really ready for an audience.  I think I somehow knew that I was just writing for me at first.  

This was a chance to practice

To experiment

To try stuff out & see what worked

To brainstorm ideas & topics

So…

I tried out ideas that felt important to me. 

I wondered about things I was curious about. 

I featured quotes that inspire me.

I wrote about gratitude & other virtues I wished to emulate.

About things I was learning.

Sometimes I wrote regularly and other times not so much. It occurred to me that I probably ought to commit to at least a minimum schedule - or I might just trail off and forget to blog.  Indeed that seemed to be somewhat common; lots of bloggers seem to eventually trail off and disappear. 

So I pondered what might be an achievable goal.  Once a week seemed pretty small, but even then I wasn’t really sure I could always do it and didn't want to set myself up for failure.  So I would post at least once a month. Almost embarrassingly minuscule, but maybe I was learning the value of tiny steps.

It turned out to be sufficiently small - and got me through more than one writing slump.  Not all of my posts were wonderful, but I was proud of my consistency in cranking them out for a lot of years.

Until that one time…

Yep, I forgot to write… in February 2023.

I discovered my omission in early March…

Oh, no!  I see that I have failed to post here during February.  

I feel like a failure. 

It was my only real goal for my blog… to post at least once a month… and I have mostly succeeded for well over a decade.

But now I have failed.

What should I do with my failure?  

Too late to fix it.  

Okay; my first thought was that maybe I could still write something and pre-date it.  

To pretend the failure didn’t happen.

To give the appearance of doing well.

Or I can choose to admit my error and move on.

Go ahead and write a post for this month - or maybe even two.

But don’t pretend to be perfect.

...

And what about that name I chose for my blog all those years ago when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or what I might write about? Wondering as I wander?

I guess I kept thinking about wondering and wandering. Amazingly I have ended up being astounded at how appropriate that label has turned out to be through the years. I wondered about so many things. And sure enough I wandered from one topic to another.

...

But then there came a day a few months later when we made a totally unexpected decision that would completely change our lives - our direction, our schedules, and our location. You might say we “wondered” about the idea of selling our beloved Christmas tree farm and “wandering” the globe for awhile.

Little did we know the wonderings and wanderings that awaited us. 

That such a major change meant that we would wander to so many places.

And we would wonder about so many things.

And... little did I know that I would end up writing a book about those very wonderings and wanderings.

Last day of May

Well, that went quickly.

My favorite month of the year.

Such a lovely month

• So nice to not have to bundle up for my walk every morning.
• Fun to be able to ride our bikes again.
• Even fun to push the lawn mower…  I don’t know what to do with the “no-mow May” idea.  I kinda’ love mowing at this time of year - and I’m not tired of it yet.   It feels like part of my world looking so lovely.  But I am trying to be open to change. To learn better ways to treat our amazing planet and its inhabitants.

A neighborhood month 

• I participated in neighborhood clean-up - both at an organized event and on my daily walk.
• I joined neighbors in welcoming the Flint City Bucks for another summer.  The event was held at the soon-to-be-open wine and cheese shop a couple blocks away.   
• Lots of visiting with neighbors at porches and flower gardens.
• I attended my first Bucks game. Most of the 5800 fans drive in from the surrounding area so the parking lot was filled to overflowing.  This country girl is enamored by the fact that I get to walk right over there from my house and grateful for neighbors that invited me to tag along.   
• What a great month to live in Carriage Town.

A writing month - though not evident on this page  

• My local writing group hosted our first annual writing retreat.  I was honored to be a panel member discussing the publication process.
• The first draft of my second book has been in the hands of Alpha readers.  It has also been printed as a proof copy* and I am now in the middle of the first major edit.
• I have brainstormed big ideas about revitalizing this blog.  I hope to write more about writing and maybe crank out several posts for a series - and then another.  I have tried numerous times to write even a single post.  
• I’m learning things about myself as a writer.  Apparently there are times when my brain is so focused on a major writing project that there’s no band-width to write other things.  
• I did however make a deal with myself a long time ago that I would post something here at least once a month.  So here's my measly single offering for May.

My recent ponderings rather remind me of similar thoughts and feelings when we lived on the road.  At that time I wrote about how travel days mess with the travel writing.

 

“I often feel like these places are slipping by my window and I just can't capture them all. Certainly the best time to write about a place is while I'm living there, but I just can't seem to get 'er done. So then I fear that I will lose it. Lose the memory, lose the moment, lose the beauty of the setting or the fun of the story. And then I feel sad.”

Yep, it sounds like real life.  Good times and places slip by my calendar and I just can’t capture them all. And that’s okay.  Sometimes I just need to pause and not fret about writing everything down.  Sometimes it is better just to live and breathe in the moment.  

I’ve done lots of breathing this month.

Inhaling the moments.

Thinking the thoughts.

Feeling the feels.

And yes, it has been a good month. 

____

* The proof print cover of my new book.  Thank you, photographer Bob Sims!

Life to live

Yikes!

What in the world has happened to my blogging habit?

Well, I’ll tell you what happened.  I have let myself get so involved in life that I run out of time and simply can’t do all of the things that I think I’m going to do.  I think I wrote about that once - about how life can get in the way of writing about life!  Or something like that.  

Much has happened in recent months.  Lots of excitement.  Lots of fun.  Lots that I do want to write about - if I can ever find the time to sit myself down to make it happen.

Our recent move has opened up a whole new world. For example, after being on the road for a few years and experiencing a lack of community, suddenly the opportunities abound and I find myself jumping in with both feet.

There are fascinating and exciting
things to do, 
places to go, 
trails to explore, people to meet, 
food to taste, 
mulberries to pick, roses to smell…  

Life to live… 

And the fun-filled weeks slip by.  

There are 
car shows, 
tractor shows, 
art shows, 
and music shows.  
I’ve attended
a literary festival, 
an art festival, 
and a world-famous
festival of races.

We made this move to be near the International students, many of whom have been away during the summer but they are just now arriving back for the fall semester.

In the last couple days we have met new people from 10 different countries - and are expecting many of them to show up at our house on Saturday for an American hot dog roast.  We are working hard to find and provide some meatless options - at least some dishes with no beef for the Hindus and some with no pork for the Muslims.  Yes, we will serve Koegel Viennas but we also have turkey dogs and even some vegetarian ones.

Yep, there is lots of life to live.  I do want to write about many of these various things, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying pretty much every minute of my new life.

Forgot to blog

Oops; I just remembered that I have a blog.

I've been forgetting to write something on it.

I guess I got distracted.

Distractions

Yep, we live in a land of distraction.

Lots of fun distractions

• Like grandkids to visit and care for
• Like a new neighborhood to explore
• Like LOTS of restaurants to check out
• Like being able to watch Jeopardy! 
• Like remembering how to drive a stick shift again

Also some not so fun distractions. 

Like medical appointments.

Like an ugly political circus filling the news and social media.
(Now there's one that can distract me and steal my joy and my peace - IF I let it - so I've made a decision not to let it!)

I am a bit ambivalent about some of the distractions in my life these days. I am thrilled by the opportunities, but struggling to remember how to find balance in my schedule. 

I really want to establish healthy routines. I want to walk a couple miles each morning which I mostly enjoy but I don’t walk very fast which means that every mile takes a chunk out of my day.

I really do want to check out lots of the restaurants in our area. So fun. But so much food. I do NOT need all of the food in a typical serving so I usually take most of it home where it becomes another meal or two in the following days. That’s all good.

Social opportunities are abundant for us in this new season. It has been awhile since I’ve had so many options. Maybe I've forgotten how to balance the appointments with my normal work.

There are educational opportunities. 

I am currently taking a couple on-line courses - and barely keeping up with the assignments! 

And books! So many books! 

There are shelves and shelves of books at the library, but how to pick just one. There are boxes and boxes full of my favorite books that have been stored away for four years - that I am delighted to be able to access again - but where do I start?

And speaking of boxes and boxes… Yes, there are still bins and boxes from our storage unit that I simply must keep working my way through.

These opportunities all take time. 

• Checking out the new town takes time. 
• Getting to know my neighbors takes time. 
• Catching up with family and friends takes time. 
• Sorting through all those boxes takes time. 
• Walking a couple miles takes time - every day. 
• Making those phone calls to set up appointments takes time. 
• Driving to the appointments and sitting in waiting rooms takes time. 
• Doing homework assignments takes time.  

And blogging takes time - or it gets crowded out of the schedule. Or forgotten!

Limitations

Time management has always been a weak spot for me. Now that I am back in the land of opportunity, it’s time to pull out the wise tactics that I learned back in the day. IF I can remember what they are.

I know that I am not alone in this struggle. In fact, my schedule is shockingly clear compared to the average person’s. Probably most of us have a natural tendency to get too busy. There are so many demands on our time - by our own desires, by the people we love, by society in general.  

It is SO easy to let our calendars fill up with good stuff. We must find ways to assess our schedules so that we can intentionally find the balance that we need.

Over the last few years I had gradually become convinced that writing is one of the important things that I do - but it doesn’t look like it lately.
I am noticing that now.
I can choose what to do about it.
Now.

Seasons

Our lives unfold in seasons. 

• Seasons of child-raising and career-building. 
• Seasons of good times and hard times. 
• Seasons of abundance as well as lean seasons.
• Seasons where we can barely hold on and other seasons where there is some margin. 
• Some room to grow, space to create, time to explore.

During these last few years of travel, my seasons have been more pronounced than in previous years. Some of those seasons have been sparse in terms of options; consequently it is natural that I would want to take advantage of the vast opportunities in this season. Several of the travel seasons have been lonely so now it is great to have the chance for regular contact with loved ones. In this season of abundant opportunity it is tempting to try for more than we have time or energy for.

Choices

And you?

• What season are you in? 
• Is it an extremely busy season or is there some margin? 
• Are you happy about your priorities and how they play out in your schedule?
• Which things would you change in your schedule if you could?
• Is it possible to make any of those changes - or to even start moving in that direction?
• Is there something that you’ve been neglecting that you really wish you could be doing now - or very soon? 
• What is it worth to you?
• Can you sacrifice something else for it?

We do have choices, you know. Usually more than we realize.