Saturday, November 10, 2012

Blog challenge accepted

So you may have noticed that I've been blogging more than usual lately. (And by "you" of course I mean my Mom and Christina and possibly Arell). Well, friends that's because I decided to take on the NaBloPoMo challenge. The what? Well November has been adopted as National Blog Posting Month, which complements National November Writing Month or (NaNoWriMo) in which a whole bunch of admirable crazies try to write a novel from November 1st to November 30th. I'd love to think I could undertake such a task one day, but until I retire and my kids are all grown up, I see that as highly unlikely. The blogging challenge, on the other hand, is something I really think I can do. Look at it as the difference between running a marathon and doing a 10K. Both require a lot of effort for someone like me, and both offer a sense of accomplishment, but one is a little less, well, insane, so I'm sticking with that one. Basically, I just have to write a blog post everyday for the month of November. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be about anything in particular. I just have to post.

This sounds pretty easy, but the main reason I wanted to do this is because blogging regularly has become really difficult for me. Between work and Ella and having some semblance of a life, blogging has really been put on the back burner. There are so many things that just have to come before it, and then I'll have these moments where I'll think, "Oh, I should write a blog post about that," and then the day slips by and I don't do it.

I firmly believe that life is about living the moment and not about recording that moment for posterity. If you spend your entire life behind a camera or updating your Facebook status, then you aren't really living your life authentically. Your experiences are real and valuable whether or not anyone sees them on Instagram or anywhere else.

But sometimes I take a moment to go back and read my old posts. I specifically love to read the posts from exactly a year ago to see how much Ella has changed, and I am always amazed by how much I have actually forgotten in the past year. I forgot when she said that word for the first time. I forgot that we went to that place with that person and that I felt that way about it. Memory is a powerful thing, but so is a living record of a growing family, and while blogging is just one more thing I don't have time to do, it's also a great gift to myself and my daughter. So, while I know that this month of daily blogging will annoy and frustrate me, I also know how thrilled I'll be to have all these memories, thoughts, and musings in the future. You're welcome future Jeni.

Oh, and PS, I already screwed it all up. We went to New York City yesterday and I never got a chance to blog. Oh well. In that case, living life was definitely more important than recording it.

Better luck tomorrow.


2 comments:

  1. There are so many days that I think... screw it, I'm not blogging... but then when I go back... I am so happy to have the little silly mundane memories that I thought to jot down quickly. Plus, let's be serious... someone with your caliber of writing skills probably only takes 5 minutes to write a really good post anyway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How sweet are you? Answer: so sweet. I just have no idea how you have so many ideas! I'm like, how do you keep coming up with things to write about? You've got mad skills.

      Delete