A Blog Worthy Life

I have been considering starting a blog for some time now. I was troubled by two things, however. I wondered if anyone would want to read it (or whether I was certain I even wanted anyone to), and I felt the need to have something around which to center the blog, like an adventure, a particular pursuit, or a hobby. Without such a central theme, I hesitated to begin.

I’ve asked myself why I want to start a blog. The simple answer is that I love to write. The deeper question is, do I have anything to say? I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t have anything much to say but, my, doesn’t she say it well! (I’ve read books like that and they were very annoying!) So I’ve asked myself, do I live a blog worthy life? Do I have anything to say? Do I have anything to say that anyone might actually want to read? If I was embarking on a specific adventure like spending a semester studying in England like my friend's daughter Miranda, or embarking on a special project - like an intentional exploration of how homemakers accomplished their homemaking a century ago like A New Old Fashioned Gal, or if I had far away friends and family to keep in touch with like my friend Linda, or if I was a prolific artist brimming over with uncontained creativity like my friend Angie...well, then I’d feel justified in setting up a blog. Or, say, if I was embarking on the adventure of moving to 5 acres of land, building our own house with our own hands completely off the grid, using generators for electricity and hauling in our every drop of water....now that’s blog-worthy. Unfortunately, that was 10 years ago when I hadn’t even heard of blogging, much less owned a computer or had the electricity with which to use it. Perhaps when we embark on the next adventure...a seasonal move to Alaska. Again, there will likely be no electricity. I will have to either use a computer by generator (that sounds kind of risky for the hard drive) or hand write my posts in a journal and make a weekly trek to the most likely wi-fi location - the best laundromat in the country, the Wash ‘n’ Dry in Soldotna 17 miles away.

So what made me take the plunge? God, through a number of means lately, has been showing me that each of our stories are valuable and worthy of being shared, regardless of how exciting they are or aren’t. I recently went to a women’s day retreat where one of the speakers, Linda Thompson, had exactly that message for us. She said, "Telling our story may help someone make sense out of their story." It’s as simple as that. We each have a story, uniquely ours. We live in community as relational beings designed to need each other and love each other. Part of that interdependency and love is sharing our stories with each other. So, while I’m sure my blog will get much more interesting with trips to Alaska and the someday seasonal living there, I’ve decided I do lead a blog worthy life, even now, simply because we learn from each other’s stories. Period. Everyone has a blog worthy life.

Now, after all that inner wrestling about the blog worthy life, I do feel rather foolish when I lift my head up from all my analyzing and realize that hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people have a blog. It’s no big deal. Ppphhhfff! Why NOT start a blog?
What can I say? I guess it just takes me a long time to think my way around to reality sometimes.

So...welcome to my blog.