Blogging in the Weirds

At the end of the seventh week in the weirds, I found myself without a job and doing some soul searching. In the shower, washing my hair, this thought springs forth: my favorite days were the days I'd sit on my bed and write several blogs about books.

I got out of the shower and journaled about that feeling, that idea, that memory. My old green and brown paisley bedspread from Ikea, my black 2007 MacBook, a pile of books from the library by my side. I did a lot of blogging about books in the summer of 2011 and again some in 2012. And even though this feeling struck me so truthfully last week, I couldn't quite bring myself to sit down and start blogging again. I came up with a meme to post on Instagram and had Daniel help me with that on Monday. I looked into downloading some Adobe software, so I could keep the old aesthetic of the posts on this site. I tried to write yesterday about taking naps every day and thought I was maybe sounding a little too "We can pull through this!" motivational.

Someone I admire started blogging again recently, and I kept trying to think about what resonates with me from her writing. As long as I've read her blogs, she's been really open about her life and what she's learning/implementing/processing. I think that's really amazing. This space has been a lot to me over the years, first on Wordpress and now on Squarespace. I would spend a lot of time crafting my posts and coming up with themes for myself.

I want to do that again for me.

I've journaled more this year than I have the last nine years, and that outlet has been helping me grow in personal ways. And I keep being pulled back here. I try to figure out which book of 2020 to blog about first, or if I can clump any together, or if I have anything worth saying anymore. And I recognize that even though a lot of time has passed, my body and mind are still in a cycle when it comes to consumption and output when it comes to reading and writing. I've read almost 50 books this year, well on my way to meeting my goal of 120. I need to record what those books are doing in my life, what they're teaching me, showing me, helping me discover. And I'm giving myself permission to follow it like we do our headlights when we drive at night.

I'm returning to my natural habitat. Nature is healing ;)

Also, if you want to see other bookish things I am doing, check out @NovelAndJot on Twitter and Instagram. It's a fun side project I've been working on with my friend Jenn.