Pourquoi?

Ah, the big question: why?

I don't mean THE big question, like, why are we here, what's our purpose on this planet, etc.. Clearly the answer to that is: Words With Friends. Asked and answered.

I mean, why take up blogging again?

I'm not lonesome. I have plenty of people to talk to face to face. Wonderful people who get me and love me and want the best for me and support me.

Then again, does anyone really tell everyone EVERYTHING?

So there's that.

What else...oh, well, as mentioned, I've killed off more blogs than Zuckerberg. Why would I start another one, being the blog commitment-phobe that I've apparently been? (Even though as my previous post plainly shows, I am more than qualified to use the internet for this purpose.)

I think it's something to do with the new year. But how many freshly-conceived January blogs fall by the wayside come March? Probably a crap-ton (actual measurement; look it up).

All things considered, I still really feel a hankering to blog again. Therapeutic? Yes. Procrastination? Oh, yes. Do I care if anyone reads it? Yes and no. It's for me, but it would make me happy to know someone else was reading.

The catalyst was a lovely friend of mine, who's a wonderful writer and blogger, beginning a new family blog. They have a sweet newborn girl, and because there are many far-flung loved ones, it's the perfect solution to keeping everyone posted. I'm sure many of you can relate.

I don't know what it was exactly, but something about her doing that sparked me to follow suit. I've been thinking on it a while, but talking myself out of it. While blogging is a fine pastime, it's one that requires a certain amount of consistency and discipline.

Aha.

There we go.

I don't make resolutions, because duh. However, buying a new calendar always sets off my self-improvement triggers. Consistency and discipline are two of the traits/practices/goals I most desire in myself. Maybe I figure if I can do something small, like keep a blog up, I can get a handle on bigger things.

I never said it was logical. Work with me, here.

I'm of the post-baby boom generation--maybe you've seen our work? Irony and sarcasm, the bulwarks of our existence, right? Right. Except that we're on the other side of forty, now. And, warranted by the headlines of the day or no, a lot of us are cutting down on the eye-rolling about things like optimism, hope, a future yet to be written, and so forth. (I said cutting down, not out. Calm yourselves.)

Charles Angrand, The Seine at Dawn.

You've caught me in one of those in-between times in life. Possibly related to my age, but probably coincidental, at least in part. I've been lots of things, and now, I'm trying to be something else. Newly self-employed (just one of the many who didn't escape the economic meltdown unscathed), newly married (well, four years this year, but relatively speaking), and I'm trying to get my sea legs back under me. Throw in some health issues and some self-doubt, and voila! A recipe for New Leaf Syndrome.

As far as writing goes, I've always written. I don't know how many people have told me I should get serious about it. A blog isn't serious, but...it is writing. And I do still have some aspirations where that is concerned, but as with so many things, something had to give, and it fell by the wayside. We could use at least nine more lives, so we could at least make a dent in all the cool shit we want to do, agreed? Yes, you CAN be an astronaut and a firefighter and a ballerina! Just as soon as we perfect this serum.

Too late to be succinct about it, but that's the gist of why I'm blogging again. What do you want to do that you've been putting off/need to be consistent about/need to discipline yourself to do?

Do you think you might give it a shot this year?