Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Get Busy Writing, Woman

Yep, it's the "I don't know what exactly to do with this blog yet" writer.  I guess this is what happens (or at least I am hoping this is what happens) when you decide to start a blog and watch the cursor blinking back at you.  Mine is saying, "Dude, seriously...come up with something...anything...you are a writer...you are creative...you can do this..."

So what I typically do when I don't know where it begin is I think about things for a while.  Where do I want to begin?  How do I want to begin?  What is it that I want to say?  And tonight, I stumbled across a blog that I found myself reading for longer than a quick glance.  It's actually a woman I've never even met before and only know "virtually" through images.  She was (and still is) writing about how she is trying to live a healthier, more balanced life.  And after I finished looking at some of her entries and images (she is also a photographer), I found myself in my kitchen putting together a healthy meal: an open-faced organic turkey and mozzarella sandwich drizzled in olive oil and topped with basil with a side of peaches. 

I'm not going to lie and say I didn't end that meal with a small bite of Heath bar...you can't change a sweet-o-holic overnight, people.  Ask my childhood friends what they remember about my house when they would come to visit and it's the fact that we always had cookies and candy on the counter...even if some of that candy was those inedible orange circus peanuts that my dad couldn't get enough of.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that I haven't written anything as of yet, because I didn't think anyone was looking...or that anyone had time to.  But the truth in my case, anyway, is that I did have the time, and on this night I actually stumbled across something that resonated with me.  And that for a split second, it inspired me to change some old habits that I'm trying to break.

I realized in that moment that my blog just has to be real.  That I need to do what it is that keeps me moving through life...and that is to sit down and write, whatever might come to me.  So perhaps one day I'll write about art.  Or watching a dozen squirrels come out onto a campus lawn after students are done passing through.  Or how I want to begin to live a healthier, more balanced life...and how someone else's writing inspired me to do so.