WordPress just sent me a delightful canned anniversary notice. Congratulations! I’ve been blogging for seven years!
Dang.
That’s a lot of writing. 1,097 posts.
I started this blog to heal wounds. I had low writer-esteem. I was desperately lonely raising a baby in a strange land. And I had so much to say, but only a few poor souls to talk to.
And they needed a break from the details.
I wrote, and a few people read. And a small percentage said they liked what they read.
At that I was heartened. I felt connected and I felt heard. In fact, once or twice, someone told me that my writing really helped them.
Good gravy, isn’t that all anyone on this planet wants?
I talked to the Internet’s kindest people about homesickness and how hard it was to choose a miraculous and ridiculously confusing creature over the PhD I could have handled much more easily. I talked about deaths that rocked me over and over, friends who abandoned me, the relationship I completely failed at, and wonderful days of joy and light.
I wrote about books I loved and problems I couldn’t solve.
And I have so much more to write. I have a list in my phone that is, currently, nine posts desperate to be written. Those of you who’ve been to this little corner of the Internet before know most of my posts are 2,000 words or so, and that 18,000 words ready, in my head, must create quite a bit of intracranial pressure.
But as I struggled a few months ago with four part-time jobs, two bickering children, one divorce, and a blinding case of I Must Do Better on All These Fronts Even If I Never Sleep because I’m Nothing If I Don’t Excel, a wise friend told me that my to-do list is too long. That there’s enough time. That the stuff with real deadlines should come first, and then I should feed my soul. Do things to feel good, and put off the unreasonable 40+ “to do this week” things I genuinely rewrote on my list every week.
Because there’s enough time. The posts will still want to be written in a few weeks. And the words will come.
Later. Because as much as I love this community, and as much as I need to be on this space, I’ve been here for seven years. And there’s enough time to write a great post later.