On June 14, 2011, I gave up on blogging. It was about time, really. I had just saved an almost-finished draft of a nice, long post for this blog...when I noticed that I had only published 1 of the 8 drafts I had written since February. I mean, writing 8 posts in 6 months could hardly be called blogging in the first place, and I only published ONE of them. Several of the drafts were complete, and some only lacked a sentence or two, but in my perfectionistic little mind, they weren't ready. They could be better. I didn't have time to make them better, of course, but I couldn't quite let them go as they were either. I couldn't fulfill my own expectations, so I quit.
Fast forward to 2013. A whole lot of life has happened in 18 months. So much, in fact, that I feel the memories slipping already and I wish I could catch them all and fix them to something more permanent. Most of it has been documented on Facebook, where posting feels less like writing and a cute photo can stand in for the words I don't have time to craft to perfection. Still, every now and then I feel the urge to actually write something—to craft something that requires more space or thought or (virtual) solidity than a Facebook status. Or something that actually needs to be formatted in bold or italic type (why can't Facebook do that?). And then I remember I have a blog.
Now, most of the really good blogs I read seem to share at least one of two basic elements: 1) a clear focus, theme, or purpose, and/or 2) a really excellent, prolific writer (or several) behind it. Mine has neither, which is why it will never be a really good blog. And the realization of that fact, ironically, is the key. If I can aim to write a merely good blog, or even a mediocre blog, I might actually produce something. Not only that, but the exercise might even push me a little farther down the path of learning to let go of perfection and embrace the beauty and freedom that comes through honest, open-handed weakness.
So, I'm going to give blogging another shot. I might not post often at first. It might not be all that interesting. I might even chicken out and drop it again. Or maybe not.
Here goes...
