Memoir on Nothing
There are millions of blogs in the world, endless DIY projects, homeschool moms, healthy meals and business plans. Why would I want one? I think the main goal is to derive the lessons I have learned in life so far, and the questions I still have going forward. One struggle I am having currently, as to the state of this little project, is to what extent can I expose myself and those close to me? I made a promise to myself in the beginning that I wouldn't exploit my husband and children to public scrutiny. I still believe that is important. But I will say it takes away a lot of potential topics. What about my childhood? I had a wonderful childhood, but my family, like all families, is imperfect, and those stories and lessons are important too. But do they want to be part of my personal open book diary for all to see?
I love to read memoirs, and love to connect with others stories. Of course I'd love it if people connected with my stories as well. I am a little hesitant to really dive into any stories though, for fear of over-sharing. I am a pretty open book and not particularly private, but I know that other people are not like that, and think that there is much in life that shouldn't be shared with the world. How do I honor that while still sharing my story?
One rule that an author I follow uses, is that she only writes about things that are more than 3 years old. It is important never to talk about a conflict, struggle or joy you are currently experiencing. This is because you haven't yet learned the lesson yet, and have little to no perspective on how it plays into your life as a whole. I think this is valid. I know that the first thoughts are not always the most accurate, and time helps to digest feelings, thoughts and actions.
I think I also haven't given much thought to what actual events in my life impacted me the most. I haven't had a series of tragedies that changed me over the years, so it has been small events along the way that have shaped me. A parenting book I am reading assures me that every time I am frustrated with my children it is because of something I haven't dealt with from my childhood. I think that may be a bit of a stretch - I am not sure if them jumping on the couch for the 785th day in a row is only irritating to me because of the way my parents disciplined me, but I do understand the idea, and have started to work through how my parenting is affected by the way I was parented.
Parenting is an easy topic in some ways because my children are young and I can talk about my experience parenting without bringing anyone else into the picture, except the darling angels. Marriage is a little harder to discuss because there is no marriage without my husband. One time, in college, we "broke up" on Facebook for one day as a joke. We were sitting next to each other laughing while we did it and reinstated the relationship in the social media world roughly 12 hours later. I was consoled for weeks by friends, and had to explain to each one in person that it wasn't real, that we just thought it was funny how much everyone took Facebook relationship statuses as the ultimate symbol. Literally months later I had someone refer to it as the "rough patch" in our relationship. We never even broke up! The lesson I learned though is that people make a lot of assumptions about your relationship from the outside. Given even one small piece of information, they will come to conclusions, most of which are flawed.
So, it seems like I shall continue on in the same vane, taking my experiences with others and boiling them down to just my experience, and the larger, over-arching ideas around what it is like to be on this planet with all these other strange humans. Since I learn something new about people every day, I guess we will see when I run out of content.
Thoughts for the day...
I love to read memoirs, and love to connect with others stories. Of course I'd love it if people connected with my stories as well. I am a little hesitant to really dive into any stories though, for fear of over-sharing. I am a pretty open book and not particularly private, but I know that other people are not like that, and think that there is much in life that shouldn't be shared with the world. How do I honor that while still sharing my story?
One rule that an author I follow uses, is that she only writes about things that are more than 3 years old. It is important never to talk about a conflict, struggle or joy you are currently experiencing. This is because you haven't yet learned the lesson yet, and have little to no perspective on how it plays into your life as a whole. I think this is valid. I know that the first thoughts are not always the most accurate, and time helps to digest feelings, thoughts and actions.
I think I also haven't given much thought to what actual events in my life impacted me the most. I haven't had a series of tragedies that changed me over the years, so it has been small events along the way that have shaped me. A parenting book I am reading assures me that every time I am frustrated with my children it is because of something I haven't dealt with from my childhood. I think that may be a bit of a stretch - I am not sure if them jumping on the couch for the 785th day in a row is only irritating to me because of the way my parents disciplined me, but I do understand the idea, and have started to work through how my parenting is affected by the way I was parented.
Parenting is an easy topic in some ways because my children are young and I can talk about my experience parenting without bringing anyone else into the picture, except the darling angels. Marriage is a little harder to discuss because there is no marriage without my husband. One time, in college, we "broke up" on Facebook for one day as a joke. We were sitting next to each other laughing while we did it and reinstated the relationship in the social media world roughly 12 hours later. I was consoled for weeks by friends, and had to explain to each one in person that it wasn't real, that we just thought it was funny how much everyone took Facebook relationship statuses as the ultimate symbol. Literally months later I had someone refer to it as the "rough patch" in our relationship. We never even broke up! The lesson I learned though is that people make a lot of assumptions about your relationship from the outside. Given even one small piece of information, they will come to conclusions, most of which are flawed.
So, it seems like I shall continue on in the same vane, taking my experiences with others and boiling them down to just my experience, and the larger, over-arching ideas around what it is like to be on this planet with all these other strange humans. Since I learn something new about people every day, I guess we will see when I run out of content.
Thoughts for the day...
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