I am not shy about two things: 1) how blessed I feel on a daily basis to live this life, and 2) how far I have to go before I feel I've done enough to thank God for just how much he's given me. I have my bad days, don't think I don't, but the better part of my existence is filled with the promise of experiences that I never thought I'd have, and love I never thought I'd find.
This life has surprised me with both ups and downs, but those rollercoasters taught me a lesson about strength and courage—courage in myself and strength in God.
This blog continues to evolve as I come to understand what I want to reveal about me. I have started and stopped a couple of others in the past for the very understandable reason that you never know how much of yourself you're willing to give up to strangers who, let's face it, may or may not appreciate or care what you have to say.
I've struggled with the knowledge that my life may not be nearly as interesting or entertaining to some as it is to others and I'm okay with that, to a point, because I know that I'm honest in all that I say—no matter what I'm saying.
The only hesitation I finding all of this lay in the fact that this [blog] is a permanent footprint of me. A permanent record that will likely continue to find a place in internet archives and caches in perpetuity. Which means that one day my own daughter ( aged 3) or son (aged 6) could stumble across these pages and find a piece of a mom that they currently have no relation to in their lives.
They will come to know the woman that I am today as adults themselves, and maybe they too will gain a different understanding of what it was like for me, in my thirties, to be a mother to them, a wife to their father, and a participant in this great big experience we call life.
Keeping that in mind, whenever I put fingers to keyboard I am often forced to ask one question: what kind of impression do I want to leave here?
It's never just an idle thought, a broken tirade, a lost diatribe, or a bad day when you're a "blogger". It's your personal introduction to a world full of strangers, over and over again and the impression you leave on those eyes will become the thing that determines how much more those eyes want to know about you and, therefore, how often they return.
Make sure the person you bring to the keyboard is one you can be proud of...one you wouldn't mind getting to know as well.
2 comments:
Oh this is such a good topic to explore. I've debated the same thing about getting too personal, putting too much out there. Jeff doesn't really care that much what i post, but i'm always hesitant to divulge too much. You just never know where it's going to go or how people will react. I follow several young married blogs & few young mommy blogs and you wouldn't believe the vicious comments they get if they dare to express a personal parenting belief or religious belief that some crazy person dislikes! Also, i have to remind myself whatever i publish is online forever. People take screen shots, download your images, etc. It's just such a risk.
It's definitely a risk I've had to consider with this blog. It's tough to know who reads and how much of what you say will become fodder for some individual with an agenda. I try to strike a balance between being personal and being informative, but sometimes that's even tough.
In the end I think we all have to censor ourselves to sone degree if only to avoid unnecessary confrontations with people who may or may not be genuine in their approach.
Post a Comment