You know, I keep getting these random trash messages in my email inbox--these "comments," so-called, on this one particular post, "A Little Metablogging to Jumpstart the Process." This is probably the first post I ever wrote, and I always naturally seem to circle back to this one idea. Blogging is hard. I want to blog. I see people all over the place who seem--emphasis on "seem"--to have no trouble generating a post a day. Some of them are simply prolific. Some of them, if you look closely, have worked up a nice production schedule, and aren't afraid to repost old material. I don't know. Is this supposed to be really hard, or really easy? Are these others simply more serious about what they are doing? Are they really just more disciplined than I am?
I actually know the answers to most of these questions. My friend, Jim, has been very generous in his advice to me on blogging. Damon is the same. My husband is supportive, because if I want to be a writer, he certainly wants me to write.
We've each of us had to put certain dreams of ours on hold for a variety of reasons. I have been encouraged recently that this is not an unusual scenario. It's natural that I have trouble writing when I have so many discrete jobs. It makes me sad that my musically talented husband has had to set the saxophone largely aside while he focuses on his other creative endeavors to feed the family.
Isn't it funny, how people told me years ago that we were in an intense period in our lives, and that we would be able to pick these things up again when our children were older, and I took no comfort in it? I was sleep deprived, and order deprived, and I just didn't believe them. Today I find the very same statement comforting--though, to tell you the truth, I am still sleep deprived, and order deprived.
I'm still working on that discipline thing. And on balancing expectations.
