5 Reasons I Blog

Laurel tagged me for this meme. I haven't done a meme in awhile, so this is fun!

1. To keep family and friends up on our "doings." I originally started a blog on Xanga, to keep people updated while we were traveling (if we happened to be somewhere there was internet service.) Almost exactly a year ago my daughter and I were in France and I was blogging daily on my Xanga for praying friends and family back home, and I realized that I actually liked to write. That was genuinely a shock to me, as I never really wrote anything except in a prayer journal (and pretty infrequently at that.) Once we returned from France I still had the "itch" to blog, so I moved over to the big-grown-up-world o' html over here at Blogger.

2. It keeps me accountable for my words. I never blog anything that I don't actually do. If I say I'm reading it, I read it. If I say I'm cooking/have cooked it, I cook it. I realize that in this cyber-interweb we can "be" just about anyone, it can be tempting to be sort of an online "glamour shot" of myself. This is where having real-life family and friends reading my blog is helpful, because they KNOW if I represent myself as anything other than what/who I am in real life. Also, once you hit "send"... it's out there. My posts are there for weeks, months and years to come, so I must choose my words carefully. (Something I need to work on in my speech as well!)

3. It's a community. I had NO. IDEA. that y'all were out there. The "Cyber Sistas" I have met through blogging are dear to me. You're real. You're digging in and raising your kids just like I am. You're trying to be the best wife you can be, just like I am. You're looking for a good pork chop recipe just like I am... It's great! Dianne at Unfinished Work wrote a post last month that I think sums this up just perfectly: We're chatting "over the back fence." And I just love it!

4. It challenges me. I know NOTHING about computers, other than if it messes up, turn it off and then back on. I have no idea how what I type gets posted here (and looking so "professional" and all! All website-ish and everything!) I know enough to click, highlight and paste things and make them into hyper-links. I know how to type something and click "publish." I know how to "browse" the pictures in my computer and on a day when the planets are all aligned just right, Blogger uploads them. So, I'm learning. And it's good for me. I can just feel the synapses in my brain, new dendrites forming with each blog post. Holding dementia and Alzheimer's at bay, that's what I'm doing!

5. It purges my brain. The Bible says that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." For me, "out of the overflow of the brain, the fingers blog." I always read, read, read. I think, pontificate, mull and wonder. There is always a hodge-podge of issues floating around in my head, from pondering the Trinity to learning a new Greek Word, to wondering how to get a stain off of my couch or hoping someone is as behind on their laundry as I am. Blogging helps me at least follow one rabbit trail for a time. Often as I'm typing a post, I get clarity on something that I didn't have before. People who journal often say that's how it feels- the process of writing something slows their thoughts down long enough to really think about the issue. That's sort of how it is for me at times... and then I hit "publish." :)

If you have thought of any of the reasons you blog while reading this post, PLEASE consider yourself tagged and post about it on your site. (I'm not sure who to tag, because I haven't read everyone this week.) I'd love to know why you blog!

If you're reading this and you don't have a blog... start one. It'll bless your socks off!