“Who knows? Maybe what you’ve written will help others, will be a small part of the solution. You don’t even have to know how or in what way, but if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on the paper like its own little lighthouse.” Anne Lamott, from Bird by Bird
I am 48 and a product of my generation when it comes to social media. I haven’t learned Twitter yet, but will tackle that soon. I had never heard of Pinterest until a few weeks ago, but that’s also on my list to master. And, as a writer and editor with some lingering old school economist inflexibility, I had always been derisive of bloggers, especially the ones with a lot of typos in their work. (If you ever see typos in my posts, please tell me!)
Real wisdom came in real books, I thought, not in narcissistic posts about what the blogger ate for dinner or why their cat was better than everyone else’s cat. Because I didn’t care what a stranger (or even an acquaintance on Facebook) ate for dinner, I assumed nobody else would care about anything I had to say in a blog.
But like most things that we disdain, the sentiment was based on fear (and, frankly, no exposure whatsoever to what credible bloggers were doing). Although I had been writing for years, I had sent very little of my creative work out into the world. I would never believe in a piece’s worthiness if a print publisher hadn’t approved of it. Those cheeky bloggers weren’t paying their dues. Plus, “blog” wasn’t even a real word, which really bugged me.
The last three years have presented layer upon layer of mind/body/soul transformation for me. Breast cancer in 2009, an unexpected spiritual awakening initiated by an accidental iPod download of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose in 2010, and a total shift in my identity as a writer since then.
A book idea materialized, and, with the help of Christine Kloser’s 2012 Transformational Author Experience, I learned that I need to start blogging to connect with readers. A couple of weeks of research later, I’m here. I actually enjoyed the creative process of learning how to set up the site and love that I can go in and fix typos myself. Plus, one of my library books explained that the term “blog” evolved from “web log,” which makes the whole thing more palatable to me as a long-time journal writer.
My hope is that my blog will provide inspiration and added discipline as I write my book (title still to be determined). Hearing from readers–your thoughts, suggestions, and your own experiences as you navigate the order and chaos in your lives–would be an incredible gift.
One last thing: my dog is better than everyone else’s dog.
