The need to be ourselves

It's easy when you read blogs you enjoy to compare yourself with those bloggers. It's also easy to feel you'll never match up to them, your site meter will never show the numbers they have, and your brain is far too fuzzy to be that witty or deep.

If you have read beginning entries, you will know I started this blog because I knew God was telling me to write. He didn't say how to write, or what to write, I just knew He was saying...write. He'd take care of the rest. I struggled with wondering if I should write about my homeschooling experiences when readers may not homeschool. I struggled with writing about books when, frankly, my reading isn't too deep right now. When you spend as much time in the car as I do right now, it's difficult to keep up with Tolstoy.

I even spent about five minutes wondering if I should write for a particular "audience". I was thinking of all this last night when I realized there was too much self absorption and concern going on. All I can write about are the things I love...per title of blog those include coffee, tea, and books. It also includes finding ways of bringing beauty into my home at minimum cost, raising ADHD kids, homemaking in difficult times, trusting God, getting to know Him better, and sharing recipes on my recipe blog (which makes it simpler to go back and find them later).

You see, what I realized as I was reading my favorite blogs is these are all women I would love to know in person. Blogging is not about numbers on the site meter but it is about sharing our life, our experiences, our knowledge, and our gifts in a world where our connections are made in cyberspace rather than across the backyard fence. I would never begin chatting with a neighbor and wonder about how many times that neighbor comes by for a good talk.

I'm finding blogging has met a need in women, the need to know there are others like ourselves "out there". In a day when the magazines at check out lines show contents that do not reflect our values and TV mocks our lifestyle; we need to know there are other women like us. I began to understand why God told me to, "Just write". He didn't tell me to write for an audience, He wants me to write from the heart so other women may know they are not alone.

We need to know there are others who are holding on to values for dear life, who are meeting hurricane force resistance in living the life we have chosen. It doesn't matter if we have children or we don't, if we homeschool or send our children to public schools, it doesn't matter if we work outside the home or not. What knits us together is our choice to live a life of faith and values.

We have chosen to spend time thinking of ways to beautify our home. We have chosen to bring the best of the past into our world today. We have chosen to spend time pondering ways we decorate our homes, the books we read, taking time out for tea, learning the joys of slow cooking rather than fast food, curling up with a great book, finding joy in the animals that surround us, spending time with family instead of having cocktails with friends...living our life on purpose.

When we meet over the backyard fence of blogging, we realize the words coming to us from the World are not true. We are not alone. There are a lot of us left. There is a wonderful, warm feeling when we read what other women have written, not for an audience but out of their own heart. We leave the computer having been strengthened for the task at hand and knowing the choices we have made will reap benefits far beyond ourselves.

Photo: Time for Tea by Judy Gibson
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