Oswald Chambers spoke to me today.
Not audibly. That would be freaky.
No, Mr. Chambers spoke via the words he was faithful to record many years ago, preserved in My Utmost for His Highest, though even phrasing it that way seems a bit much. Maybe we could just say that I was inspired.
In any case, please join me in pondering his advice. I’ve included it in its entirety here: [Read more...]
This link takes you to the Writer’s Almanac for the week of February 11.
Monday’s poem that week stuck with me. Somebody that the poet cared about challenged him with this: “Who do you think you are?”
After carefully reviewing the list of possibilities and concluding that he couldn’t identify a plausible possibility, the poet concludes that it was the first time he knew who, in fact, he wasn’t.
I thought about this for a while. So much of my young life was spent trying to figure out who I was.
Probably a lot of my adult life, as well.
Who do you think you are?
Recently, I thought about it relation to blogging.
Who do you think you are?
Like the poet, I carefully consider the list of possibilities…
Pioneer Woman? Heavens, no. She’s got that little zing that I don’t have. And wow, I wish I could take photos like those, but I don’t have the equipment, know-how, or the livestock to pull it off.
Boomama? Nope. Don’t have the comic timing, southern accent, or interest in college football.
Rocks In My Dryer? I don’t have the energy to review all those products and manage all those giveaways. So, no, I’m not her, either.
Holyexperience? Sigh. No, despite having written a book called The Contemplative Mom, I don’t write in that poetic, reflective, contemplative tone.
FiddleDeeDee? I’m not in Florida, though I sure wish I were. Not only would I be warm–I might be lucky enough to be plagued by frogs and have some great material to write about! Yes, she’s got that magic comic timing, too, along with the ability to insert an italicized phrase that adds just the right punch.
Who do I think I am?
Sometimes I still wonder who I am, at least as a blogger.
But I do think I have figured out who, in fact, I am not.
If I may ask–not in a challenging, snippy way, but out of curiosity–who do you think you are?
I am so grateful that this blog has been meaningful in some way to someone.
If you scroll down the page, you’ll see that I’ve actually won something! I hardly ever win things–to illustrate, I entered numerous giveaways in the last two Bloggy Giveaways without being chosen for a single item. But that’s okay, because I don’t really need anything.
Still, it’s fun to win.
For me, however, even better than winning a beautiful set of earrings or an adorable tea cozy or a great book or an iTunes card, is knowing that I’ve been a part of someone’s life in some way. The blog has allowed me a way to connect with people and share my faith, thoughts, ideas, revelations, concerns, and even a little fun.
So when somebody passes along an award, I’m humbled. Grateful. Delighted. And I once again marvel at the connections that these blogs build.
I’m supposed to pass along these awards to others, following the expectations or rules that accompany it. I’m afraid I’ve dropped the ball on that, so I’m going to try to catch up today.
Let’s start with the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award that was passed to me a while ago–like, a really long time ago, from Heather L. at It’s All for the Best. Thank you, Heather. Apparently, I’m a slacker-rockin’ blogger. In fact, I’m so late, maybe I’ve lost the honor?
Anyway, I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure what the rules are–how many blogger recipients should I list, for example? And what, exactly, constitutes a “rockin’” blogger? The best I can tell is that it should be someone who exudes some energy and fun from time to time.
Check out the following bloggers and see if they inspire you to crank up the radio and dance around the kitchen…maybe fling your hair around to a heavy downbeat. Here you go, you two Rockin’ Girl Bloggers! Grab the pink award and make us dance:
Home Sanctuary: With the word “Sanctuary” in Rachel Anne’s blog name, you may not get the impression she’s rockin’ out, but her Company Girls program is a fun idea and her tone is extremely encouraging. Plus, she’s got a music widget and selects energetic, often themed, music to fit her posts that always makes me smile.
One Thing: Jenni’s full of surprises. I never know what to expect when I pay her blog a visit. Sometimes it’s a series of great photos with amusing captions, other times it’s thoughtful poetry or a profound essay. And sometimes it’s just a silly story that makes me laugh. She gave me a scare a while back when she threatened to stop blogging. Thankfully, she stuck with it. Rock on, Jenni!
Next award, Blogging with a Purpose.
Like Merchant Ships practices cheerful frugality–discovering God’s plenty, secondhand. She explores the area where frugal living intersects with simplicity and contentment. She sticks to that purpose and demonstrates it vividly with great writing and gorgeous photographs. Makes me want to rush off to Goodwill and hunt for silver serving dishes…not that I don’t do that anyway….
Holy Experience draws us into her mind, heart and soul with purpose and grace. She is sharing her daily spiritual journey powerfully and poignantly. She’s not out to strategically reel in readers with programs, though she did set up the encouraging One Thousand Gifts concept inviting people to practice gratitude. Instead, her purpose is expressed in her header in words borrowed from Frederick Buechner: “…listening to my life…for whatever of meaning, of holiness, of God there be in it to hear.”
Holy Experience awarded me this for spreading the love of Jesus. I don’t hold a candle to her outpouring of poetic and prayerful devotional depth. It’s a lot to live up to, Ann. I’m honored. Read above and below to see that I’m sending back my admiration.
Hope Road is a blog written by a college senior named Anna. She explains that the name of her blog is “Hope Road” because “I’ve been rescued from the broad road that leads to destruction, and graciously placed on the road that leads to life. While some may see this path as being confining and restricted, I see it as freeing, and ultimately, as full of hope. Without my Savior, I would have no future, no promise, no life. So it is in gratefulness to Him that I look at my life and the world through the lens of hopefulness.” I’m refreshed, inspired, and encouraged by this young woman’s faith. In the midst of studies and major life choices, she’s spreading the love of Christ on the blogosphere.
Andrea, the Flourishing Mother, shares her life and faith on a blog that reflects her everyday life as a mom and her rich relationship with Jesus Christ. Sometimes one of her posts will offer a devotional thoughts or nourishing recipe; other times, a story about her kids. You might even find a book review. Overall, though, her flourishing life is flourishing because of her faith in the King.
Chrysalis awarded me an E for Excellence! Thank you!
She reports that according to the rules, this award must be passed on to ten bloggers who have blessed, inspired, and encouraged me. Ten! Oh, boy, how can I limit this to ten? Nearly every blogger I visit, even if I don’t agree with everything that he or she writes, has said something to bless, inspire or encourage me. Check out my blogroll for an extremely wide range of bloggers from all walks of life. They all get the award.
Without meaning to take away from others, here are a few Excellent bloggers I’d like to highlight:
Holy Experience again. Truly excellent.
Toddled Dredge: In spite of seeing her link on many blogrolls for years, I’m a fairly new subscriber to Veronica’s Toddled Dredge. I don’t know why I waited so long! I really enjoy her writing. So far, everything I’ve read is Excellent.
Lifenut. “Action is Eloquence,” she claims in her header. Yes, that’s true. And I would suggest that thanks to her writing, her blogging is also eloquence. It’s funny, too. She’s a clever girl.
You won’t find this guy on my blogroll, but I stop by his site from time to time: John Shore. He’s a professional writer and speaker, and writes bold posts with attention-grabbing themes. People get really involved in the comments, often because he will have written something utterly unexpected about writing, life or faith that really got them thinking. Maybe they vehemently disagree and want to explain their opposing stance. Or maybe they are delighted to see someone writing about his Christian faith with such creativity and energy. He’ll get you thinking, and if for no other reason that that, I’m awarding him an E for Excellence.
There is so much excellent writing out there on the Web, people. As you have probably already discovered, there are some big-name, Top Bloggers out there who demonstrate excellence and often a very defined purpose. I just figured they’ve been awarded so much that their blog-display case is packed full. Nevertheless, they fit the criteria.
Because you’re probably already familiar with them, I’ll simply list them for easy access:
I find them all, in very different ways, to be Excellent and Blog with Purpose.
Here are several ways to accomplish both goals:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgf6kYIR-Dk]
So, what do you think? Could you do it? Could you walk and type and concentrate at the same time? Or do you think you would lose productivity and focus?
Or, worse yet, do you fear that you would lose your balance and slip even at an unbelievably slow pace?
At the writers’ colloquium I attended last weekend, the one where Haven Kimmel brought the keynote message, I participated in a breakout session entitled “Writing from the Heart.”
The workshop leader, Brent Bill, led us through a couple of simple exercises designed to illustrate that while it’s easier to write from our heads than our hearts…writing from our hearts can make a deeper, more meaningful and lasting impact on readers (and ourselves).
As I went through one of the exercises, I concluded–not surprisingly–that I am very head-oriented. I like thinking, learning, sorting through ideas. In fact, some of the people who have commented on my posts have mentioned that some of the things I’ve talked about have really made them think. I like to write about the things I’m thinking about, and there seems to be no lack of ideas in my noggin.
The key is to tackle the more profound issues of the heart, as well. In fact, Brent said, a convergence of heart and mind is ideal.
If I explore through my writing an issue that I’m both thinking about and turning over in my heart, I will probably produce something with much more power to minister and communicate to others.
After posting about providing regular, meaningful content in order to feed the readers of my blog, I thought this nugget was worth sharing with fellow bloggers.
It may be riskier emotionally, but if we want to touch, connect, impact and/or minister to readers–even entertain them–we should look for the places where our mind and heart converge; where the thing that we’re thinking about is also something we’re dealing with at the heart level.
It might even change us as we write it.
Ironically, this post does not illustrate this well. This is a head post. Helpful, hopefully; informative, perhaps. But not really dealing with matters of the heart.
I do hope to write more posts in the future that are even more heart-level, while honoring my commitment to a vibrant mind and lifelong learning.
I see others do it well, admiring their ability to merge storytelling and heart-issues with literary allusions, while tapping into inexaustible lexicons via their vibrant, vigorous intellects.
To offer readers meaningful content, look for the convergence of mind and heart in your life. Throw in some story, and you have the recipe for nourishing, memorable, linkable, TrackBackable posts.
Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more great ideas.
To browse my previous odd assortment of Works For Me Wednesday posts are here.
At a writing event this weekend, one of the speakers leading a breakout session mentioned his blog. He said, “A blog is like an animal–you must feed it.”
True. To keep a blog alive, it needs food in the form of quality content.
But how much? And how often? Monster-plant-sized portions daily, or a light watering once a week?
If I recall from my personal history of blogging, bloggers used to be advised to blog daily. That was in the early days of blogging, back in Web 1.0. Then the advice shifted to “regularly” (but once-a-week minimum was still advised). The idea of regular or daily blogging was to develop a loyal audience–that nothing would be more aggravating to a curious visitor than to be interested enough to start visiting, only to find one day that no content appeared. That was the theory, at least. To gain readers–faithful, loyal readers–you had to give them lots of content.
Then came RSS feeds, Bloglines, Technorati, Google Reader and the like. Now loyal readers rely on automated delivery services to alert them to new content–it pops straight to their reader, feeder, or e-mail in-box. This technology raised the question of whether or not daily content is still necessary.
And then, along came over 50 million blogs, give or take a few million. Some of those, they say, may be abandoned; thus, the number of active blogs may be much lower. Still. This explains why I saw a post the other day at Pensieve, in which she noted with alarm that over 4,000 posts were waiting for her at Bloglines. Talk about overwhelming!
We may be experiencing blog-fatigue. The term usually applies to the blogger him- or herself, the one too pooped to produce material. In this case, I’m suggesting that “blog-fatigue” refers to a reading fatigue. It’s a funny cycle, actually, with bloggers feeling a kind of obligation to their readers to provide fresh material; and readers finding they are overwhelmed with all the new material. The readers want to read–they may even feel a bit of anxiety that they’ll miss something great. But who can read all of those posts? Who can keep up?
And one would be tempted to pose the same question of the bloggers, the writers–who can write all of those posts? Who can keep up? Strangely, many of us can. I miss a day here and there, but I do seem to keep tapping away.
But should I?
This article by Eric Kinz has me wondering if I am contributing to a problem, a glut in the blogosphere, a bottle-neck of ideas.
Kinz appears to gear his post toward corporate marketing and professional bloggers (and it’s a little old, dated June 2006; and you know what that means in computer-years…), but he provides an interesting argument for why daily blogging is no longer necessary or even desired–and he does it in a 10-reason format, which is always so easy to read online.
He talks about participating in the blogging community as being vitally important–more so, perhaps, than churning out daily posts (especially if content is compromised and lacking punch). A person commenting on the same post duplicated on Kinz’s blog pointed out that the goal of the blog should be considered when determining frequency.
Kinz quotes Seth Godin saying, “blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that’s a long way of saying ‘making every word count’) will use attention more efficiently and ought to win.” Kinz concludes by saying he is only going to post when he has something to say.
Still other articles make good arguments for daily blogging, even today, even with RSS feeds jamming and even competing with approximately 55 million blogs.
I spite of Kinz’s 10 compelling arguments against daily blogging, I intend to continue posting often–daily, when possible. I guess it’s the German ancestry flowing down through my DNA–I like people to leave well-fed. No scrawny, underfed blog-readers over here. I’m going to try to keep you supplied with content.
It’s up to you whether or not you’ll sit down with me for the meal.
Blogger: Pursuing a Christ-centered, creative, curious, slightly quirky, slow-down life and sharing it with you, post after post. (Home of Food on Fridays).
Author: Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families
Content Editor: The High Calling (Family/Parenting)
Use these Codes until Mother's Day (May 13)
Code: Buy1Give1: (2 for $9.99 Buy one for yourself and gift one to another mama) OR
Code: ML25 (25% off Mother Letters)
Click through from this link to purchase a copy (use one of the codes!), and I will receive a modest sales commission.
ann kroeker. curator. (read it, liked it)
follow: RSS
How a Single Comment Can Instantly Humble Me
A comment on How to Invite Chaos into Your Life in Four Easy Steps, a post about our current home repair and improvement projects, humbled me. Instantly.
Here’s the quick background:
Due to years of neglect and domestic denial, our home has developed some problems, some issues, shall we say. (Some of these issues I can’t bring myself to describe in a blog post — they’re too embarrassing.)
We knew that we would eventually have to resolve these issues, and the time has now come; our botched efforts over the years to patch up the problems in various ignorant and ineffective ways climaxed, and it became indisputable that we needed a professional rescue. This week, the cavalry has galloped up our driveway, leaping from their utility vans and pick-up trucks to save the day.
I wrote about all the banging and clanging of the workmen and its effect on our day-to-day family life in that Chaos post, and even tried to drag out the humor with a follow-up post utilizing a child’s hand-drawn “Chaos-O-Meter,” for fun.
But a commenter pointed out that for someone without a lot of resources, it’s not all that funny to read about a blogger complaining because she can afford numerous home improvements.
The humbling comment, from “prodigalsonnybono,” read:
This light rebuke was a good reminder to me that I’ve been given much and should be humble and grateful instead of complaining. After all, wonderful changes are taking place in my home and the chaos will result in beautification!
The point is well taken, and probably even more so because the note was humorous and gentle in its tone while speaking something true.
And I was ashamed that I never once said in my Chaos post how delighted I am that we will soon be enjoying all of these new changes and improvements. While they aren’t luxurious like a Home Show Tour home would display, I am very, very grateful for what is taking place.
Also to be able to own a home when so many people are losing theirs is a luxury I don’t want to take for granted. I’m so sorry if this was indeed difficult for someone to read.
And to be able to raise four kids is also a privilege that I don’t want to take for granted. Even one of the painters joked that I had too many kids. I disagree, of course, with that suggestion, but I think I understand the point that being able to afford to raise children and own a home and pay for professional help and own a hammock suggests I am living a privileged life…so why write a whiny post buffered by humor like the Chaos one?
I responded in the comments and also via email. You can read the comment at the original Chaos post. My e-mail note read:
Please, prodigalsonnybono and anyone else who felt deflated and unamused that an American with resources was complaining via humor about noise and commotion and grumpy kids, accept my apologies.
Please know that I am grateful –very, very grateful — to be able to afford all of this.