Thoughts on Blogging

I am not a very regular poster to this blog. At least once a month, so that my OCD self doesn't go crazy for a month not appearing in the archives. Beyond that...not always so much.

I do, however, read a lot of blogs--often not commenting, but reading and feeling connected to the lives of these bloggers even though we haven't met in person.

Two, however, got me thinking in the past few days. PBB posts about words. Her last sentence really hit me. "They evaporate before you know it, before you can catch them, domesticate them, make them yours." That's the closest to explaining what my words are doing right now. I somehow can't get them to do anything but swirl and float around my mind and not get any farther along than that.

Songbird writes about the sound of pencil on paper and her journey of blogging and journaling. While I was always more of a pen person myself (as opposed to pencil), some of her words spoke to me particularly. "Had I reached a point of such complete change that writing down my thoughts and especially my feelings would not be part of my life anymore?"

If you read my first post, it's about needing a home for my words, a place to once again write and share. When I think about when I did most of my personal writing, it was when life seemed the toughest...whether it really was or not. Now life is tough in different ways than it was then. And more often than not, those words did not get shared with anyone--even my closest friends.

And I'm coming to realize that I want to blog not just to get my words out of me but because I want the community. I'm a shy, introvert pastor, who sees lots of people every day but have very few friends with whom to make daily or even weekly contact. When I think about posting to this blog, I realize that I think about what responses I might get. And when I think that no one reads my blog (okay--I'm sure people stop by now and then), I lack the motivation to make the words stop swirling; I lack the motivation to try to put my thoughts and feelings into words and sentences. I crave comments and responses and, if I'm honest--affirmation. I want to know that I'm not alone in this crazy world in which we live. I want to know that people care what's going on in my life--even if it's only those things I choose to share.

But I know I can't expect people to stop by if I never write, so maybe I'll try a Lenten discipline--since Lent will so soon be upon us. I'll post more often; I'm not ready to commit to daily. I'll do the RevGal Friday Five each Friday. Hopefully I'll get some visitors and some will keep coming back.

And even if not, maybe I'll find again what is missing right now in me, the joy of putting my thoughts into words simply for my own sake.