On Blogging

What is a blog?  Why do I write here?  Who is reading this?  Who do I want to read this?  Why do other people write?  Why do I read blogs?

Yesterday, something happened in my little internet world.  One of my favorite bloggers (and creative inspirations) was caught up in a blog-drama.  Elise is a truly creative blogger.  She has a new post every day.  She spends her time creating.  She is honest and generous.  She is dedicated and professional.

Yesterday, as part of her Make/Give30 project, she posted a quilt that she had made.  It was open for bidding, and the proceeds would go to Habitat for Humanity.  In her post about the quilt, she was honest about her process – that it wasn’t a perfect quilt, that it was never intended to be a perfect quilt (which in my opinion makes it better… quilts are made with love, to be loved, to show love).  In the comments, some people attacked her for even posting something imperfect, calling it unprofessional.

First of all, come on.  You don’t need to comment if you disagree.  Just move on, click the next blog, it doesn’t matter.

But, it got me thinking.  One of the comments that defended Elise said something, and I’m paraphrasing here, about how this is Elise’s house, and all of the readers are guests in her house and should act accordingly.

As a blog reader, my lists of blogs is constantly changing.  A writer will move away from my interests, or I will get annoyed by something, or they will write something I don’t agree with, or I will find myself feeling jealous of the blogger’s life.  And here’s what I do:  I unfollow the blog.  It’s simple.  The world – and the internet – is so full of negative things.  I don’t need to add to that.  I enjoy my life so much better when I’m being positive.  I don’t need to read things that make me mad.  I don’t need to read stories that make me feel jealous or insecure.  If I’m not comfortable in a blogger’s “house,”  I’m going to leave it.

Easy at that.

That is why I read.  And why I don’t read.

Why I write is something else entirely.

The last couple weeks I’ve been feeling sort of melancholy.  I think it’s a combination of coming home from vacation, being with the kids all the time, cutting way back on nursing Harriet (helllllllo hormones), and just the stress of the past year catching up.  I took some time to edit and post the Disneyland photos, and I instantly felt better.

My friend (and inspiration) Sarah, just wrote on Facebook about how a doctor once prescribed that she spend thirty minutes each day creating or meditating.

With this blog, I know that I go in spurts.  I will be super inspired for a while, and really keep up with posting on it.  Then there will come a time that I’m not inspired and I don’t feel like I have anything to post.  And the blog is quiet.  And (I know this sounds precious) my soul is quiet.  It isn’t that the work of the blog gets overwhelming, it’s more that I’m just not taking the time to create.

When I’m making things, and cooking things, and growing things, I am inspired.  I’m inspired to write and share on the blog.  Those are the times that I feel the best and the happiest.

I’ve tried many different iterations of this blog – a strict schedule, a flexible schedule, no schedule, no blogging, over-blogging.  I have grand ideas that I will be able to make this blog into a wildly successful corner of the internet, and have that success spill over into CaroMade, and I’ll be a super amazing blogger who creates for a living.  That’s the dream.

But for now, I’m going to focus on doing it for my happiness, sanity, inspiration, and as a positive place that I can call my internet home.  If I don’t blog for a week or two, I won’t beat myself up, but I will remind myself that I usually feel better after I write.

After all, this is my home.  And you are all welcome.

And if you are still here, and still reading, after all this, and are wondering how Elise handled her drama, she did it like a pro.  Today she came back with a post about sweet potato fries that began with a joke.