Begin

 

 

 

What a wonderful thing...a clean slate. This even looks like words on a chalkboard, doesn't it? So, what do I want this year? What do you want?

Even if you don't "do" resolutions at the beginning of each New Year, you probably do think about what you hope the new year will bring.  I think that's likely to be true of most of us.  Do we want more of what the previous year brought or are we saying "Goodbye to bad rubbish" and hoping the months ahead lead down a completely different path than did those behind us?  Either way...we're thinking about it.

 

I've realized, finally, that just thinking in a random, daydreaming kind of way isn't likely to get me where I want to be.  I must, first of all...focus.  

 

That doesn't mean I have to choose only ONE thing to try to achieve or to take part in or to learn or whatever.  It means that no matter what things I choose to experience this year, when I am experiencing THAT thing, I will give it the attention it deserves.  I will focus.

 

I don't know about you, but I've long had the problem of jumping around from thing to thing even when I'm trying hard to get something accomplished. 

 

(You know the scenario:  you start dusting in the family room and then find an object that belongs in another room and when you take said object TO the other room you notice that there is dust on the table there so you start dusting that and then you see bits of stuff on the carpet so you go get the vacuum and that's when you notice that stack of books you sat on the floor and they really should be shelved so you leave the vacuum and grab the books and take them to the shelf and then you see that there are loose dust jackets because you don't like to read books with their jackets on so now you have to match the jackets to the books and where IS that last one you finished?  Maybe you left it upstairs?  A trip upstairs to search for the book reminds you that you were going to do a load of laundry today and since you're up here anyway you might as well haul down the laundry basket and so you do and once you've sorted the laundry and gotten the first load started you remember that you never DID find that last book and so it's up the stairs again and then you think about the fact that you'll need hangers for the clean clothes you're washing so you grab them from the closet and realize even if you DO find the book, which you still haven't looked for up here, you don't have a free hand to pick it up 'cause your hands are full of hangers so you make your way back downstairs and put the hangers in the laundry room and then it's back upstairs for that blasted book and when you finally find it you bring it down and put its jacket on and add the now covered book to the shelf with its companions and then you stop and see that the dust cloth is nowhere to be found and the vacuum is in the middle of the other room and...what WAS I supposed to be doing right now?)   

 

Obviously this problem that I have makes life more difficult and the task at hand suffers for my lack of focus.      

House cleaning aside, the short list for things I plan to give focus to this year, not particularly in order of importance, include the following:

• My health
• Reading
• Photography
• My friends
• Family
• Movies
• Being creative
• Getting my house in order
• Completing stories I've begun writing
• Sorting through years of saved "treasures"

Hmmm...not such a "short" list.  Seems lack of focus might not be my only issue.   

Baby Steps

It's a new year and the idea strikes when you see a quote that says "Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one." Then an old high school friend  comments on your Facebook posting of said quote " Always about writing, aren't you? You should write and then publish your "365" book!"
You respond "Hmmm...a page a day, 250-300 words per page, 91,250 to 109,500 words total....yeah, I could do that!"...and then you wonder how to go about getting started and your son says "You could start a blog."

One of the first things I said after my son suggested this format as a way to "write a good one" was "Aren't blogs supposed to be ABOUT something in particular, so that people will want to read it?".  My son tells me that most people write blogs for themselves; it's not about having anyone else read them.  I guess it says something about me when my immediate response to that was "But I WANT people to read it.  I don't need a blog to journal for myself."  He was encouraging...telling me that I have lots of things I could write about and share and that I should just try it.


What I know about writing a blog could, as they say, "fit on the head of a pin".  I am much more familiar with reading them.  But this was interesting and new and kind of exciting so I hopped onto Google and searched "Starting a blog" and found links to a couple of YouTube videos and a couple of articles, all of which seemed to think Blogger was pretty much THE way to go for a "newbie" blogger and so...here I am.  I still have no idea if this will go anywhere, but what is there to lose by trying it?  If nothing else, I'll have a nice online journal where I can post pictures and maybe a video and my hand won't get writer's cramp because it's a lot easier to type for long periods of time these days than it is to write with a pen (though I do still love the WRITTEN word on paper and have lovely journals that I treasure).

If I can trust the Word document into which I just cut and pasted this entry, I've met my goal for the day with over 350 words.  What do you know?  That was completely painless.  

As for you, if there IS a "you" reading this, I hope you are interested enough to come back so you can find out exactly what I mean by "First of all...focus!".