What if I jumped in too?

For the last few years, I have been sort of turned off by the whole idea of blogging, particularly the type of blogging that some people use as an outlet to gossip about people they know, vent each day's problems and burdens on their lives, and 'Xanga' every detail of where they had lunch and what it tasted like and what they thought about it, all while assuming that these details are so vitally important that the whole world be informed of them. Not that those things (except the gossip part, clearly) are inherently bad; it just didn't seem like something I wanted to do. I didn't feel the need to tell everyone I know about the 'woes' of my life and every detail of my day, and I certainly don't think that the events of my life or my thoughts are so important that everyone need hear them.

But then, a few of my friends started blogging, and I started reading the blog of a new friend who has been doing it for a while...and I was kind of inspired. We have been talking a lot lately about vulnerability, hospitality, and resisting autonomy, as well as how part of connecting with people on a deeper level is opening our hearts to them and letting them speak back into our lives. Throughout this whole discussion, I realized that I have become pretty closed, pretty 'gated,' and I don't really like that change. I miss the times when my friends knew everything that was going on in my life, and for better or worse, they knew when I was excelling, when I was messing up, and when I was stuck...Not to say that the purpose of this blog will be to fill everyone in on every detail, but it is definitely part of an effort to reach out and put myself a little bit further out there. I hope that these posts will be more about reflection and less about documentation.

I also miss the times when I loved to write and when it was a part of my daily routine, and I hope that this will help me get back to that place where I could so easily process my thoughts and put them down without worrying about how they might sound.

I won't lie, it's a little weird to think that anyone who knows about this can read and get a little insight into my thoughts...but I'm thinking that may be a good thing. Thanks, friends, for prompting me to jump into this. So here we go...