I’ve been blogging for over ten years. There are times, like now, when I really wonder why I’m doing it. I think about chunking it for good, but I just paid for a three year custom domain, so I doubt I’ll leave it any time soon. Today, just because the world needs one more blog, I wanted to get a custom domain with my full name. All variations are already taken. That’s not surprising really, but what got on my one nerve was that everyone who took my name hasn’t blogged for years. Years! They walked away rendering a perfectly good name useless….with no way to contact them. Logic tells me it’s their name, too. I tell logic to shut up.
The Blogosphere is crazy.
The world is crazier.
I wonder if I’m crazy, too.
I am dissatisfied with this blog. I like the look of it, but I just can’t quite get it to say what I want it to say. Of course, I realize that’s what the keyboard is for, but …
What makes a better blog? What makes one interesting? Do frogs help? Did I ever tell you my dad called me "Frog" until I was well into adulthood? He doesn't anymore. I kinda miss it. Do you come back to blogs with which you strongly disagree? Do you revisit bloggers you don’t like? Why does it seem that gossipy bloggers who stretch the truth and sensationalize the trivial are well read? Everybody wants some dirt, just not necessarily on them.
Why are recipe blogs so popular?
Ok, maybe if I had an oven, I’d understand that one better.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with this blog. Probably not much on the cosmetic side….maybe not much with the writing, either. I wonder what y'all would do if I wrote what I really thought! lolz
I would read whatever you wrote, LOL, even if it was what you really thought. I think we have those 2 sides of us, the "good" side where we have to play "nice" and the "bad" side where we don't really care that we have to play nice. You could blog under a pen name and some might not know who you might be.
ReplyDeleteYou know you got to keep some blog going, if only for April :)
betty
Thank you, Betty. You have been my faithful bloggy friend for all these years....and all our blogs! lolz
DeleteI am experiencing the same thoughts...why am I doing this??
ReplyDeleteSeven years of words...
Lots and lots of words! I enjoy your blog...but I sure can't tell why we do it. haha
DeleteI was just thinking about TBR this morning, Margaret.
ReplyDeleteYou're echoing a lot of what I've wondered from time-to-time ... but you just made me laugh out-loud at your telling logic to just shut-up!
To answer a couple of your questions ..
No, I can't bring myself to patronize (is that the right word?) a blog whose content doesn't ring true.
Early in the game when I was desperately trolling for friends (lol), I began following a couple of ladies with whom I had nothing in common ... and came away each time feeling annoyed (or angry). Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I'd rather have fewer friends than lots of empty etiquette!
Ahh...the days of the "fly by commenters....I'll-comment-if-you'll-comment-but-I-won't-read-what-you-wrote!" "Empty etiquette' sums it up nicely.
DeleteI'm the only one of friends that blog and I've lost track how long I've been doing it. Before Bridge and Beyond I had blogs in other spaces, I had an aol blog back in the day, but couldn't get people to interact...it wasn't very well done, so deleted it and moved onto msn spaces I think it was called and it was great for a while then they had lots of tech problems so many of blogging friends stop using their format and moved onto something I've totally forgotten the name of...and it was very active until it wasn't. I think that's when I moved to blogspot,though I've never paid for a domain, never could see a reason to pay. Like you, I've had more than 1 blog. My travel blog has become outdated....not sure what I'm going to do with it, just last week I deleted my Flat Stanley Blog which I loved, but couldn't get people on board...I wanted parents and grandparents to get their kiddos to do pictures with Flat Stanley and share their adventures. I deleted a blog I started to talk about other things in life that would be different than my personal blog....5 blogs was just too many so am now down to 3. I've considered deleting my travel blog, but it's loaded with information even if it's not current in terms of when I last blogged, but I can't see how to merge my personal blog and my travel blog...so am still thinking. I hope things in your life calm down enough that decide what you want to do.
ReplyDeleteDon't delete your travel blog! Too many memories stored there. Who knows when you will want to use it again, anyway!
DeleteYour post made me think of a line about change from a Keith Green song: "Nothing lasts, except the grace of God..."
ReplyDeleteLife is always changing. WE are always changing. It took me decades to accept this was really true. And then only lately to get sort of comfortable with it. It's too easy to feel safe and comfortable with the familiar. I used to be skeered of change. Now, I see it's a matter of trust (in God), so I feel more free to think of it all as some sort of great adventure.
Want to know my opinion?? ha ha, here goes anyway. You gave yourself your answer to your main question in what you wrote.
"I’m in a place right now I don’t like. My headspace is noisy, my heart is restless, and it’s not just my blog that dissatisfies me."
My guess is that it's not really your blog at all that is the problem. Maybe take aim at one thing that excites you, fires you up, a dream or goal that gets you up in the morning. And DO it. Work towards it. Try. Do. Fail. Reach again. Whatever. But LIVE your dream.
Then write about it.
Isn't that what you Writer Types do? Write about what you know?
That would be authentic. Interesting. Inspiring. Thought provoking.
PS: loved Mevely317's phrase "empty etiquette". Cracked me up cuz it's so true!
haha that phrase is true, no doubt. Most bloggers have experienced it!
DeleteSo. You absolutely hit the nail on the head. Not sure how you get in my head so well, but you do! I lack passion for anything these days, but I'd to write a book. That's what's on my mind, only I'm skeered because I'm always good at starting, not finishing! It's almost like, "Why even start?" It doesn't help that my life is out of whack because my self control is out of whack, and it makes me just blindly stumble around. I know you understand, so I don't have to whine anymore about it. Loretta, thank you for dropping by and summing up my issue.
I just finished the book by Steven Pressfield called "The War of Art". He's not a Christian, but he does have a spiritual bent, and I would call him a Seeker. Anywoo, I think you'd enjoy some snippets (these apply to all the arts):
Delete-There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
-Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Betwen the two stands Resistance.
-Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.
-Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it's the easiest to rationalize.... I'm just going to start tomorrow.
-The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off til our deathbed.
He goes on to offer answers and strategies. He puts some of in spiritual terminology that is off kilter, but I understood he was trying to understand the invisible, without the benefit of the understanding from God. Still, I understood. And I remembered several verses in Deuteronomy where God promised to bless the work of our hands.
He is right in saying we need to DO the work. To start. To try. And then "heaven comes to our aid." "Just as Resistance has its seat in hell, so Creation has its home in heaven."
Margaret, sometimes you write a post with frogs...Yet I know there is depth in you that you allow out at times. So here is the last paragraph in the book, and it's for you:
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got."
:-)
I am always looking for blogs where I can 'connect' with the person who is writing. On my own blog I most just write what I live. Sometimes I write things that might no be popular with everyone but that's okay. Because it is my blog. And I respect all opinions as long as they are respectful. So I think you should write what is in your heart and in your head. And we will come to read it!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog. Here's the truth: Of all of the blogs I've read, yours is the one I connect with most. It may be because we share a similar sense of humor. Snicker. That may not be a good thing... We, of course, also share a foundation of faith. (Yeah. That's better, huh?)
ReplyDeleteWhatever the reason, I love your blog.
The line Retta picked up on, also caught my attention. When I read it, it reminded me of my own rrecent experience. Since the beginning of May, I keep hearing the same sentence over and over in my head. It's: "I'm not where I ought to be." Just keeps quietly repeating. "I'm not where I ought to be."
I dunno, Girlfriend, maybe God is up to something. Be ready. :)
Deb