Letter to My Blog

Dear Blog,

There have been several days of silence and perhaps you feel like newly fallen snow waiting for some human tracks to appear. Of course, in the actual world of fields and snow, that’s a beautiful sight. But the empty blank page has a lesser beauty. There is that moment of invitation and possibility, but only for a short while and then, “Come on! Let’s go!” 

My modus operandi is that my companion thoughts start trekking across the synapses of the brain and then I shoo them out the door and tell them to go out and play— either in my still-handwritten journal, an article (or book) I’m writing, but mostly, for an average of 25 times a month, in this modern form of publication that you are. And just about every day these past 9 years, some thoughts show up that are worthy of some form of sharing. 

But sometimes the ideas are too complex or vague or out-of-focus to squeeze into one page and sometimes not that interesting and occasionally (rarely), they don’t show up at all. Or sometimes I’m too busy to find a moment to bring them into the form and substance of a blog post entry. You understand. 

Right now, I’ve been hit with a stick of injustice that didn’t come from the Zen practice of waking me up or a firm loving reminder, but appeared from incompetence granted power beyond its due. And either I write 20 posts about it or try a new thing— put on my impermeable emotional raincoat and let the water drip off and not penetrate. I’m trying it out and it’s kind of working—except for when I wake up at 2 in the morning. I wasn’t even going to tell you this much, but some kind of expression, getting it out into the air, is often needed as we wend our way through the mine field of life’s unexpected explosions. In the fairy tales, the advice is: “Tell it to the stove.” Of course, someone is often hiding behind the stove and hears it and the plot thickens. And if this blog is the stove, then I know others will indeed be listening. In which case, the punch line is this:

Sometimes you need to let go the dignity and sureness of being right in a situation (believe me, I am in this one!) and just play the game and let it go. It will sort itself out and there’s more important work to attend to. I’m trying that out here and it’s not feeling too bad. And certainly better than diving into the deep drama and outrage. 

So, dear Blog, hopes that I’ll return to my routine with you and we can go romping across the newly fallen snow soon. Almost literally, as it hailed here yesterday! 

See you around town!

Love,

Your faithful writer