I Blog Because ...

I have begun many hobbies, projects and short-span endeavors in my life without a whole lot of behind-the-scenes reasoning or preparation.  I'm not a huge planner in many ways.  I plan in a very detailed way for events, such as parties, vacations, day trips, date nights and some gift-giving.  In my "non-planner" way, which consists of every other minute of my life, I fly by the seat of my pants.  I'm the eleventh hour girl in most things.  I don't clean on one day, do laundry on another, grocery shop in between ... I define a need for those things and complete them as needed, but yet, in an organized way.

I don't make a lot of sense to people who do not live similarly to me.  I have eclectic taste and ways in music, decorating, books, movies, food, and homemaking.  I don't rhyme, but I do have reason, though the reason lies in my subconscious until I dig it out.  Guess how?

By writing.

I blog because I write better than I speak.  I convey messages via the spoken word just fine, but my real feelings, reasons, needs, wonderings, hopes and loves come through more clearly and with greater definition on paper or in this virtual world.  In writing I feel confident, able to express what lies in my heart and head, and also dig out what lies deeper than I realize, until I start overturning the words.

Writing and organizing thoughts into sentences and then sentences into conclusions is a kind of therapy for me, as I have a deficiency in observable organization, though organizing is a favorite activity -- I cannot maintain it.  Blogging allows me to organize and renovate, but without having to clean up afterward.  It heals wounds I didn't know I had.  It explains my fears, and defines my sense of self.  It makes thoughts fall in line.

I blog because throughout my younger years I had trouble with painful shyness.  I struggled to speak in class at school, hated to have a teacher call on me, and didn't feel comfortable sharing thoughts.  Private little me.  I feared judgment, misunderstanding and failure.  Mistakes attract the wrong kind of attention.   Writing provides an outlet to answer incognito.

As a preteen, I discovered the essay.  The parameters of the essay opened a new world, as that form of writing requires following rules, creating within a framework, offering a linear approach to an answer, but allowing for creativity at the same time.  I had a niche, at last.  Essays gave me subjects to address and opportunities to "say" everything I needed to convey.  Perfect shy person outlet.

I blog because after living about half of a lifetime, I know that my writing helps others.  God gives each of us talents, and we are not to hide them or squander them.  I have done both for years.  Blogging allows me to use my writing in a way I could not have as a younger person.  Sharing the written word could happen only by letter or by publication.  The Internet did not exist.  Sharing with others would have taken place by letter or by expensive publication, the latter including the possibility of rejection.

I blog to understand the experiences in my life, to explain the confusion I feel sometimes, to dive deeper into faith and God's complexity, to connect to others in ways I don't know about at first.  I blog to learn more about myself, to connect the blessings and difficulties in my life and find that they have come together to make a masterpiece of God that is, more than anything else, worthy to share.

I blog to share.


Linking with Faithful Bloggers today.