Reality Bites

      

      Why do I read the blogs I read?  Is it for the patterns, be they knitting, crochet, sewing, or anything else that takes my fancy?  Is it for the instruction somehow?  This is how we do this thing…  Is it for the recipes?  Is it for the conversation and drama?  The look into someone else’s life? 

      Maybe a better question would be why do I write this stuff myself…

      Why do I read it? 

      Because I like to learn about the person I am dealing with as it gives me a better understanding of where they are coming from w the way they are teaching and/or explaining something…because it is entertaining…because I simply like to learn and know how other people deal w different situations…I like to compare my personal level of insanity to someone else’s level of insanity in order to get a comparative shot to see if I am over the top or just in the groove…because feeling as if I know the person about whom I am reading makes me feel move involved and more connected…and it makes me want to reach out and connect w the person I am reading about in some way.

      Would I tweet or update facebook about every little detail, intimate or not, of my life?  No.  There are things I do keep private…but then again…I do not mind people having some information.  I will never give you blow by blow details of what goes on in my bedroom…but I am proud enough to let everyone know that my man really does it for me in so many ways…

      I like being able to read the drama and get the recipes.  I enjoy the process that goes into creating objects…and the cat the knitter lives w while she creates.  I want to know about the new pieces of art, as well as life w the puppy.   Some days I need to hear about another knitter, what goes on in her life, how her children and significant others act and react.  I need to see what other artists are doing and how things are affecting them in their daily lives as they pursue their art.  I can go on and on, linking to hundreds of other sites.

      I may not read each and every blog every single day, but I do go back to the blogs I follow, and I read.  It uplifts me.  It centers me.  It makes me grateful for the things in my life.  It gives me new ideas.  It refreshes me.

      Now, why do I write this stuff myself?  It started out as a way to get things out of my system.  Writing morning pages simply was not enough.  I had a lot more to get out of my system…and I needed a more public forum in order to keep me honest, to keep me writing, to keep me motivated.  Then I started to get feedback from what I wrote…I was helping others by working through my own stuff.  Some days I do get up and think, no, I won’t touch that in a public forum…and then after thinking about it for awhile, I find myself thinking what if Shelia in the Outback needs to hear what I went through and how I dealt w it in order to help her work through her own issues?  It’s not so farfetched to believe that I can be that beating of the butterfly’s wing for someone else.

      Why do you do what you do?  Why do you read blogs, or tweets, or facebook updates, or anything else?  Why do you post?  Or do you?  Do you simply read and go on w your day?  Do you comment on other’s posts?  What do you do?  How are you connected?

I not only have ADHD in real life, I have it in the blogging world as well.

            I was reading this post…not because it had ADHD in the title…although that may have been one reason I chose to read this post before some others…but because I find these sorts of posts interesting.

            Let me see if I can go through this in a decent sequence so I am not running around and round in circles in order to catch up w myself.

            Why did I start a blog?  Honestly…I don’t remember the exact reason *why*.  I wanted to be a part of something.  I wanted to reach out to people.  I wanted to share my own experiences with homeschooling, with cooking, with raising my family, with knitting, with raising dogs…and it was a place to vent about all and sundry should I so desire.  My blog…my life…my opinions.  Period.

            I’ve run through a number of blogs.  I have had work blogs…that I have worked and reworked.  I have had a blog for each ‘topic’ involved in my work, be it counseling, knitting, sewing, art work, whatever.   I had blogs for my writing, one for this writing group, one for this writing scenario, one for this writing adventure.

 I hated it.  I hate having to tell people, this blog is for this, this blog is for that.  I hated having an email signature that had so many links and suggestions.  I hated having to set up sidebars on each and every blog that pointed everyone to this blog for this and this blog for that.

Am I saying this gentleman is wrong when he says you need to focus?  Actually, I am not.  I do agree that having focus and knowing where you are going w things is a very good thing.  But, I am saying, this is not for me.

            I am not saying follow me, do what I say.  Then again, I am also not saying follow that guy, or that lady, do what they tell you to do.  I am saying…finding your own niche is all you.  It is up to you. 

            I still have my personal blog, my writing blog (all my writing blogs condensed into one), my counseling blog (only because I am not yet done setting up my other blog, which will make this blog obsolete), and my sales blog (for lack of a better term).

            Now, ideally, when I am done, the writing blog will (as it pretty much is now) remain an archive…my writing has taken some different turns since October 2009 (the date of the last post there) and I am liking the new direction.  I don’t want to take everything off the net, simply because I am proud to have been associated with SoulFoodCafe and the TextyLadies.  Among other things.  When I am done, the counseling blog will be let go of…I am not sure if that means leaving it as an archive or what at the moment…and everything will move over to the currently called ‘sales blog’.

            I would like to say I sat down and worked all these things out in a logical manner.  Not me.  It all started with these nagging ideas in the back of my head that I pretty much ignored.  Then, my friend Kerry triggered something with one of her nicknames for me.  Things began to slip and slide mentally for me, behind the scenes, until I took up the gauntlet…and I am still waiting to see what I am going to do with it.

            The premise is everything I do has a common thread:  spirituality.  Every day in my life there is that common thread to everything I do, whether it is making the bed in the morning or brushing my daughter’s hair or making dinner or chiding the rabbits for being so messy or taking a shower or watering the plants…no matter what is going on with me, there is a string of spirituality and spiritual connection that runs through everything.  All the time. 

            Please do note…I said SPIRITUAL…not religious.  Religion to me means something organized and run by man.  I am not a religious person.  I am, however, an extremely spiritual person.  There is a reason for this…and I won’t be getting into that now.

            My ‘sales blog’ (calling it a sales blog bothers me, yes, although this will be where I hawk my wares, yes) is a work in progress…obviously.  But it is also becoming a more accurate picture of who and what I am as a business entity?  For lack of a better term here as well. 

            I don’t want to be known merely as the Priest who knits.  Nor do I care to be known as the seamstress who also performs weddings and/or handfastings either.  I do a great many things.  I should be able to have everything I do…from the counseling to the knitting to the weddings to the sewing to the painting to the pottery to the doll making to the funerals to the writing all in the same place, even though to the majority of people, known of that is related in any way.

            Yes, it is all related.  It’s all me.

            I do have ADHD, as a matter of fact.  I have more than one interest.  I am strong enough in myself and of myself to say, I am ok with this.  I don’t want to be like anyone else.  I don’t want to do things the way everyone else does.  Not that I don’t want my name out there.  Not that I don’t want people to know what I do.  I just want to do it my way.

            History, even the history being made today, is full of people who did it their own way and they succeeded.  I can be one of those people. Even if I am not, I can at least be happy with who and what I am, the way I am.

            Some days, that means more to me than anything else.