Thinking again about why I blog

I read some great stuff about blogging last week - in particular, a piece on Zen Habits - which got me thinking about this blog and where I'd like to take it.

It started as a place where I could explore ideas about life, the universe and everything. Why are we here? How should we deal with various life challenges? What's the best way of putting values into action?

It quickly developed into a blog that's primarily about running and the lessons it's taught me, with occasionally posts on travel, food, cats, photography, writing - pretty much everything really.

I don't have a problem with that, except that it breaks the #1 rule of blogging, which is to pick a topic and stick to it. According to those who know, a blog is much more likely to find and keep an audience if it consistently offers good information and advice on a relatively narrow range of subjects. 

But the truth is in the 7 years I've been writing this blog, I haven't been all that concerned about "building an audience". Naturally, I hope readers will find it interesting/enjoyable/helpful but, at the end of the day, it's more like an on-line diary - a place to record random musings and explore my creative side. I'm happy when others find a post interesting and join the conversation by responding in some way but, even when they don't, it's satisfying to put pen to paper (so to speak).

I've also come to enjoy using it to share my photos. Let me be clear, I don't have any illusions about my talents as a photographer. (How could I with so much evidence of photography far better than my own available online?) Nevertheless, I enjoy using photography to see and share the beauty around me and, every once in awhile, I capture an image I'm really happy with - like this one:

Speaking of photography, if you find yourself in Nova Scotia this month, be sure to check out some of the wonderful exhibits that make up Photopolis, a celebration of all things photographic  On my way home last night, I stopped in at the D'art Gallery to see "D'ance: A Dancer's View of Dartmouth". It's a terrific show for anyone who loves dance and/or Dartmouth. The exhibit is the result of the combined efforts of a photographer, a choreographer and numerous dancers - who together made beautiful, evocative images that have a lot to say about the power of dance to shed light on human experience. I especially loved the series of a dancer interacting with Dawn MacNutt's sculptures at Alderney Gate, and a group of ballerinas at Two if by Sea.  

Another show I'm looking forward to is a series of portraits taken by Aaron MacKenzie Fraser in the Roy Building shortly before it was torn down to make way for new development.  I've had many opportunities to visit and work in that building over the years so was greatly saddened to see it reduced to rubble and am hoping the portraits will capture some part of the soul of the place.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the blog. (See what I mean? No focus at all.)

In a post last summer, I noted that there are lots of topics about which I don't write - though the reality is they take up quite a bit of real estate in my head - family, marriage, work, aging, sex, for example. My reasons for avoiding such topics are obvious. They're too personal, I'm embarrassed, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and (most of all) I'm not sure I have anything much worth saying. (Like that's ever stopped me.)

On my long run today, I decided that maybe it was time to write about some of those subjects. After all, I've gained a fair bit of wisdom and experience in my 52 1/2 years on the planet - some of which might actually be useful to someone. And, who knows, maybe if I open up, others will too and we'll all learn something.

It's an intriguing to think about but scary as well. It's sure to feel downright uncomfortable at times and, of course, there are others' feeling to consider. On the other hand, my New Year's resolution for 2014 is to "plunge boldly into life" so the timing seems right to change course. Look for my first Painfully Personal Post later this week. 

Blogging buddies

Janet, Keith and me

One of the best things about blogging is meeting new people who share your interests. And one of the people I've most enjoyed getting to know in the past year is Keith Cartmell. (See his blog here.) Keith's posts often make me smile so I was excited to learn he and his wife would be visiting Nova Scotia this month. I got to know Keith through my friend Janet, who I also met through blogging. (Her blog is here.) It turns out we all like to like to write, cook, drink wine and stay active (running, cycling, whatever) so we have tonnes to talk about.

We three along with our spouses met up for supper last night at Janet's house. What a terrific evening! Janet and her husband prepared a fabulous dinner of scallops (to start) and salmon on the BBQ. Husband and I contributed an arugula salad with pears, walnuts and blue cheese and a decadent rum-soaked cake with whipped cream. Needless to say, we ate very well indeed. And talk - my goodness, did we talk - like long lost friends - about running, writing, food, politics - essentially, all the things we blog about. It was great fun.

We got together again this morning at Crescent Beach for a mellow 5k run/walk. I forgot to take my phone with me so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say it was lovely, despite being cool and misty. Here's an picture of Crescent Beach from a couple of years ago to give you the idea. It's a truly spectacular place to run.

I spent the rest of the weekend doing a 16k long run, cooking, shopping for shoes (I got some fun little booties for walking to work), riding my motorcycle, and taking a few photos. The theme for my photo group this week was black & white photography. Here are some of the shots I took over the past couple of days:

In short, it was a mellow weekend - which is a good thing because life has been just a tad stressful lately. Once again, I find myself puzzling over what I want to be when I grow up. (Will I ever figure it out? I'm 52, after all!) And Husband and I have been struggling with whether or not to put the country house on the market this fall. We love the house, but it seems downright silly to spend so much of our income maintaining two properties. On the other hand, neither one of us wants to give up the country life. Hopefully, things will become clearer over the winter. In the meantime, I plan to nestle in and savour whatever time we have left here.

Speaking of savouring, I had a pretty decent long run yesterday. My legs felt a bit tight from hill training Wednesday evening so I opted for an easy route along the river to Peace Park, then upriver to the footbridge and back. It felt great visiting the Park since it's one of my favourite places and I hadn't been there in months. As I was leaving, I ran into a couple of friends from community theatre days - almost 30 years ago!! (Yikes! Where has the time gone?) Seeing them reminded me of all the fun we had together. Community theatre is something I'd like to do again one day.

It's time now to sign off and get ready for the long week ahead. There's a fire in the fireplace to ward off the autumn chill in the air tonight. I'm disappointed summer is over so soon but the cooler temperatures should make it easier to tackle projects. For starters, I have to get my Rum Runners Relay team organized since the race is only three weeks away. After that, there's the little matter of prepping for a fall half marathon (What?!?!) More on that next time... :-)

Happy running and writing friends!

So what's this blog really about?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about why I write this blog. When I started, I had the vague notion that I wanted to explore what life was about. Over time, it's become largely a running blog - a place to write about my running adventures and what I learn from them. When I was going through a particularly dark period of my life, it was also the place I tried to sort out why people did the things they did and who I wanted to be. Last fall, it was the place I shared my struggle to draft a novel. Recently, I've begun sharing my motorcycling and photography adventures. At other times, there have been posts about travel, food, pets, family, friendship, favourite gadgets and a range of other topics. In short, it's a confused mess, thematically speaking.

And the irony is that, even though it seems as if I've written about pretty much everything, there are lots of topics I've avoided, though they hold great interest for me - work, politics, sex, books, and aging, for example. 

The other thing I've been noodling about is whether blogging is helping me to become the person I want to be or simply encouraging me to be more narcissistic. Put another way, do my musings contribute anything of real value to my life or anyone else's? 

All of which has me lead me to thinking about how I approach this blogging business and whether, in future, I should try to be more focused. Have I strayed too far from my original goal of figuring out what life's about? Should I create sub-blogs for posts that have nothing to do with running?  Should I give up blogging altogether and focus instead on doing the things I write about? 

Now, there's an interesting questions: Should I give up blogging altogether and focus instead on doing the things I write about? Well, yes. And no. 

Yes, I should spend more of my limited time and energy engaged in activities I think are useful, enjoyable, or meaningful in some way, rather than just writing about them. And no, because writing often helps me understand what I find useful, enjoyable or meaningful and is itself one of the things I enjoy most. In addition, I'm told my blogging has occasionally helped other people by, for example, encouraging them to run, see something in a new way or appreciate the world around them.

Perhaps, I'll start by trying to by trying to be more thoughtful about what I write and why. Ideally, I'd like all my posts to contain something useful, beautiful, and/or thought-provoking - to be less about expressing myself and more about sharing what I learn as travel through life.  

So, here are the questions for today:  What do you think makes blogging worthwhile? What do you like most about the blogs you follow?  If you blog yourself, have you ever considered giving it up? 

Running Lessons: A writing runner, or a running writer?

It was a tough 26km long run today. I'm not sure what the trouble was. The weather was perfect, I was well-fueled, and all my bits and pieces seemed to be working well when I started out - aside from a little tightness in my hips. Unfortunately, as the kilometres ticked by, my hips and lower back continued to tighten to the point that running became downright uncomfortable at times. I had to stretch at various points and began to look forward to the uphill portions of the route because they seemed to relieve the discomfort to some extent.

Despite my body being less than cooperative, I still enjoyed many aspects of the run. The skies were mostly clear, the temperature was balmy and I had the route almost entirely to myself.  The high point was discovering another new section of trail that hugs the water's edge upriver from where I usually run. The picture above was taken at a particularly lovely spot along that section.  The peacefulness of the bend in the river made me yearn for a canoe or kayak in which to explore beyond it.

A leisurely paddle wasn't in the cards, however. Yesterday was for running and for thinking about what it means to be a runner and a writer.

Yogic blogging

Recently, a friend asked me why I blog.  It's a good question. I blog because I've always enjoyed writing and blogging is a good outlet for it. Knowing others may read what I write forces me to be more thoughtful about the messages I communicate and more disciplined in the way I express them.

The other reason I blog is the same reason I practice yoga - because it often helps me make sense of what I'm thinking and feeling.

In the 15 years I've done yoga, I've come to realize how much emotion is stored in my body. For example, fear typically lodges itself in my left shoulder and neck, grief and sadness in my chest - somewhere between my breast bone and the hollow at the base of my throat - and worry in my belly. As I move into yoga postures that open up those parts of my body, the trapped emotions are exposed and become more difficult to ignore - making it more likely I'll acknowledge and address them.

Blogging does the same thing for me. Even if a post begins with a single thought or idea, exploring it often involves uncovering layers of meaning or connections I've not made before, and acknowledging their emotional and psychological content so that I'm better able to deal with it.

In the course of both practices, feelings can get intense pretty quickly and, when that happens, I'm sometimes tempted to "roll up the mat" and go looking for something else - anything else - to distract me.  Fortunately, experience has taught me that it's when emotions become that intense that I most need to get back on the mat - physically and metaphorically - so that I can figure out what's causing them and decide whether I can do anything to fix the problem or simply need to "let it go".

In short, blogging - like running - is a form of yoga for me - and it's one I highly recommend to anyone else trying to figure it out.

Getting started

I've read that the most important thing when starting a new blog is to choose a subject you're passionate about.

Well, what I'm passionate about is life.

What's it for? What makes it worthwhile? Why are we here? Why is there so much joy, pain, beauty, ugliness, caring, and injustice mashed together in this world?

My quest isn't a religious one exactly, though it may be spiritual -- or perhaps it's one of self-discovery. I suppose that's the first question: When searching for the meaning of life, should you start by looking within or without ?

It may also be a quest to rediscover the best parts of who I was -- before I became the cynical, discouraged 40-something woman who wants to be the most creative and loving person she can be, but too often finds herself caught in an endless loop of self-doubt, small-mindedness, pragmatism and fear.

So let me begin with this quote:

Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise,
risking more than others think is safe,
dreaming more than others think is practical, and
expecting more than others think is possible.

Is it possible to live that way? Should one even try?