I've started and restarted this blog post too many times.
How does one start blogging again after two months away? I can't just start talking about my favorite music or how we should all learn to love without the limits we so often put in place. I can't start there, so I'll just say hello.
Hello, there. I'm still here.
I'm active on my Facebook page, popping in every day or so. So if you're on Facebook, won't you join me over there?
I'm also busy writing and podcasting over at The Masterpiece Mom. Our podcast is also available on iTunes, which is so fun. But it was in this place I began writing almost 10 years ago, and it is this place that holds such a special place in my heart.
Well, this wasn't the first place I began writing. There was the book I wrote in 5th grade. Do you remember Sweet Valley Twins? Ahem. I read every single one of those books, paying my hard-earned allowance for them. After reading a crazy number of stories about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, naturally I wrote a story called Triplets of Long Beach. Yes, I did. That was the last time I wrote fiction. You can all thank me for that.
I moved on to loving writing reports and term papers in high school and college. And technically, I started writing online two blog addresses ago, but I think you get what I'm saying. I guess I've been a writer for a long time.
Hello, again.
I hereby pledge to post at least every other week (on the weeks I'm not writing for my other site) for the next two months to get back in the habit. Will you hold me to that? Come knock on my virtual "door" in the comments or on the Facebook page if I'm not holding up my end. You have my permission.
Life has been tough. So tough this last year. The kind where you cry through nearly every worship service. That's the main reason for my absence. I just haven't known what to say. When writing for The Masterpiece Mom, I can compartmentalize and write about mom stuff, and it keeps things neutral. But over here, I write about some different things, and sometimes they hit a little too close to home.
I wrote Into the Presence of God {A Prayer for the Hard Times} during one of the hardest weeks, and The Girl in the Next Seat a few weeks after. I needed to keep writing. But it wasn't easy. There was nothing new to say.
But things have turned a corner. Nothing's changed, really. The circumstance is still just as difficult. But when God plants peace in your heart, things do change.
I'm doing well. For the first time in almost a year, I can actually say that with a familiar twinkle in my eye. That twinkle's been away.
Have you been in that place of unexplainable peace when the storm is still raging? Isn't it just so welcomed?
Our standards change and we become content with things not quite looking the way we'd hoped or imagined. I'm guessing that's the state of mind we're intended to have all along.
So hello, again. It's nice to be back.
Welcome back, friend. Totally understand the time away...I'm about to take a bit of a blog break in order to write on some side projects, having realized that for ME, right NOW, I can't do both (& also love my family well). Glad to hear the twinkle is back! :) Love this (& it feels like I keep living it!): "Our standards change and we become content with things not quite looking the way we'd hoped or imagined." :)
ReplyDeleteYAY!!! Welcome back, Twinkle:-D Glad you're back:-) Love your post, Amanda! I'm looking forward to seeing more posts on the Scarlet Paisley blog in the near future!
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!
Bethany