Maybe it was Providence that, on this day of new beginnings, I ran across this minuscule quote:
“To begin, begin.” –William Wordsworth
Of course, this opened the door to a 20-minute, unsuccessful search to finding the origin of such a quote. But, I go back to Providence.
Over and over I am asked if I write for others and my short answer is that I have. I get all hung-up on expectations I have of myself and what I feel might be the expectations of others. I am a verbal processor and, as the ideas develop, some pretty deep stuff comes out of my brain. Also true is the fact that many good things are spoken, imagined, crafted but lost. I have gotten better at grabbing and documenting those processes and it is becoming a tentative habit now. But Providence keeps bringing the writing part to my attention.
Some years ago I was part of a social blogging site called “VOX” and I was so happy there. From 2006-2010 I posted regularly and had a great little community of creative and interactive people who were there with me (most, from the beginning). We had to migrate our posts to TypePad (not my cup of tea) and Flicker (also, not my cup of tea) and so I chose WordPress and then I was GuitPicken’s Weblog. But here was not in any way comparable to what I had experienced at VOX. Life happened and posts became less frequent, my community out here was far less interactive and I fizzled out.
It is my old community from VOX who asked most often about my writing until the recent four years. Now, it comes from everywhere. My small group of Christians who are professional therapists or Biblical counselors ask the most if I have written this or that. My work environment wants article-length stuff. My close friends and family ask about songs. And, now, there are individuals I randomly meet who ask if I have written. Little speaking engagements bring other queries.
It has seemed to be one of those subjects that will not go away. Write! Poking…prodding…provoking…
Annoying.
It is working. Like all good persistence does, it is finally moving me.
I’ll work out the details as I go, but I have found a name for this thing that will allow me to explore the diverse ideas that come into my head. I will commit to this even when it will mean that I publish before the writing is refined. My commitment to myself is that I will no longer ask the question: “To blog, or not to blog…”
So we have arrived at my very first post of this new blog. I’ve decided to call it:
Laura Leigh Chats 