During the time I've been blogging I've seen several posts with this same title. It always intrigues me to read about the reasons others blog. These bloggers usually have a sort of running theme through all their posts - one that finds its genesis in the very reason they began blogging in the first place. Invariably, they are blogs I am drawn to.

I am a rather orderly person. I find it hard to get comfortable when there is chaos all around me. Before I can sit down to do something, I need to tidy things up. That doesn't mean I keep an immaculately clean house. It simply means I like everything to be in its assigned place. The pictures may be sitting on a rather dusty surface, but they are right where they belong. I am content.

It is the same way with my mind. I like to have things all thought out, sorted through and put in their proper place. So I needed to figure out exactly why it is I blog.

I have mentioned a time or two or three that I have a huge imagination. Inside this sixty-two year old heart lurks a wide-eyed child whose head is filled with impossible dreams. I tell you that to explain my original reason for blogging. I am going to reveal a very foolish part of myself - so please don't laugh too hard.

When I first discovered blogging, I saw it as a way I could use my love of writing as a service to the Lord by writing about the things He put on my heart. In and of itself, I think it was a good reason to start. However, it didn't take long for the Dreamer to make her appearance, and I began to envision GREAT THINGS. Instead of the rejection slips I had so far received for my efforts to impress the writing world, I would have lots and lots of people reading my work and being blessed. Why who knows where it could all lead? Book offers, book tours....maybe even Oprah's Book Club (I told you I could dream BIG).

It didn't take long for that dream to go the way of most of my others. There were not lots and lots of readers - and the writing hasn't been all that brilliant after all. The reality was quite different, but in many ways much more than I ever dreamed. I couldn't have imagined the wonderful community I would be privileged to become a part of; the amazing women who write brilliantly and whose lives enrich and bless mine far more than I ever could.

So why blog? I looked in an old notebook I keep filled with quotes about writing. One of my favorite writers is Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Here are some of the things she said about why she wrote:

"And yet my life does not go well without writing. It is my flywheel, my cloister, my communication with myself and God. It is my eyes to the world, my window for awareness, without which I cannot see anything or walk straight. Writing in a diary is my tool for the development of awareness. It is the crucible through which the rough material of life must pass before I can use it in art."

"One writes to capture and crystallize one's joy, but also to analyze and disperse one's gloom."

"I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living."

I cannot remember where I read it, but the author was writing about keeping a Journal. She said that a thought or an event was not completed for her until she had written it down. It is much the same for me. There is something about writing a thing down that puts the finishing touch on it or perhaps gives it clarity.

That is what I want to accomplish with my blog - and then to share it. I'm not quite sure why the "sharing" part is important. Perhaps it is still that desire to somehow serve with my writing - to encourage, to share ideas, to keep in touch, to laugh and cry with others. It has become a sort of Journal but without the deeply personal things that really should be kept in one's own heart.

That is why I blog. I am so thankful that all of you blog too. How you have enriched my life.

Blessings,

Quick Update: We are in Dallas with our five grandchildren. We were scheduled to leave on tuesday morning but a predicted ice storm changed our plans. My granddaughter called and told us of the dire forecast, so we quickly packed and left the house at about 5:30 monday afternoon. A friend of my daughter-in-law was taking first shirt (she had been with them since saturday) and we were meant to take over tuesday evening. We quickly decided that we should try to beat the storm in both directions. She headed back to Houston and we left for Dallas. Our granddaughter, who is 17, held down the fort until we arrived.

We ran into a thick fog just after we drove through Austin and it stayed with us until just outside of Dallas. Scarey!! It feels as though you are enveloped in a thick blanket. My husband did a great job, and we pulled into the driveway at a little ten o'clock.

We are caught up in the fun of five children and an icey day outside. I'll be away from the computer for a few days. My four year old granddaughter wants me to watch her play with her little video game. So....I'm off! If things quiet down this evening I'll try to visit a few blogs. Otherwise.....see y'all on monday!

Blessings,