There are so many things on my mind right now, so many blog projects and ideas {as well as completing our house reno, my job, my family, yadda yadda} and no time for any of it. So I make notes, jot them in my notebook and try and find some time to remember what caused that ‘aha’ moment so many weeks ago. This is one of those posts!
A post I read recently really struck a chord with me, it is something I have touched on before here; but a comment on that post from a twitter friend made me think twice about laying it all out there in blog-land and what the sugar-coated blog really means to both the writer and her audience.
Tara from The Treehouse added her own ‘Things I’m Afraid to Tell You’ blog post to a growing movement of posts worldwide that focus on how things really are. How we as bloggers really feel; our worries, fears and insecurities, the dust bunnies under the beds rather then the single polished piece of furniture visible in the ‘staged’ blog pic {I’m definitely guilty of this!}. I loved her post, not only did it lay out some home truths about Tara herself, it also made me think about what I’m afraid of. What my fears and insecurities are and why I write and post about the things I do.
A blog is a tiny window into someone’s life and at the end of the day may not be a window at all, perhaps more of an elaborate facade. What bloggers choose to share more often than not is the Bright & Shiny, the Perfect, the once a month home cooked meal passed off as a common occurrence. My initial reaction to this chain of thought was lets all get real, let’s write about the truth in our days, the bad news, the fights with our husbands, the headaches when we drink to much {how many times do you ever see a mummy blogger mention that?!}. Quit sucking it in and let the muffin tops hang out right?
Hmmm. I’m not sure. I thought I was sure until @kerrypayne commented on that earlier post;
It helps your own sanity to sometimes say everything is fine when it isn’t, a kind of affirmation maybe
She’s right. Life has been hard since we came back to NZ. So many nights of crying into my pillow waiting for the medication to work so I could forget my troubles until the morning. But I didn’t blog about that. Perhaps I should have. Diverting the focus from the audit, the miscarriage, the melanoma, the job loss, the death of my Dad for Christ sakes…..detracting from these things by sharing a beautiful picture, or one of my boys little triumphs, or an awesome family outing on Dave’s one day off that week; those blog posts helped affirm that the sun still shined on us – some days you just have to look harder for it than others I guess.
So write what you want, whatever you need to write at the time. Less narcissism in blog writing and more self-preservation perhaps? I don’t know, but bleeding heart writing can get tiresome to read {and can be painful to write}, sometimes the best remedy for a bad day can be to simply slap on some lippy, whip up some scones and post a plethora of Pin-Worthy pics! Who knows?
However you choose to engage your audience, I’ll still read your blog, I may even comment!
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