Twelve years ago, when I was newly married, newly unemployed, and newly Texan, I set out to be a blogger. I had big dreams. I would write about spirituality and simplicity. We were Catholic and broke so it seemed like a good fit. When the kids came along, I morphed into a wannabe Mommy blogger. Then my kids got older--I increasingly felt that telling their stories was an invasion of privacy. Then my husband got a raise--I increasingly felt like I was losing my simplicity credibility. Then we moved to Iowa and I realized in the light of the midwestern sun, what I took for frugal simplicity might just have been how most people outside of Texas live. I stopped blogging.
My blog button on my toolbar beckoned me from time to time, but I never really jumped back in. Once the kiddos started school, I tried dusting off my old marketing skills to help promote their small Catholic school. Along the way, I made an interesting discovery. There’s always a need for stories, for writers. Each teacher had an interesting history. Every work of art produced by my kid begged to have the mini-biography of the inspiring artist to be told. So I founded and started submitting things to the school’s blog.
Then I got sucked into serving on the Catholic School Board. After nearly a decade out of the paid workforce it was a heady rush to be taken seriously again by fellow adults making very. Important. Decisions. I loved being an advocate for Catholic education. I was good at it. If I’m honest, I also loved having an influence beyond my family circle in a way that was visible and appreciated. I stopped telling stories. I thought that was so easy that anyone could do it. The blog sputtered out.
This past May, after much discernment, I stepped off of the Catholic School Board for both personal and spiritual reasons. Almost immediately, I was asked to give a presentation to the parish staff about improving communication. That turned into an invitation to lead the initiative to redesign and rethink the role of the parish bulletin in our parish. The office staff was capable of the graphic redesign. The parish staff leadership was willing to try a new tactic and provide information. Guess what gaping hole in the project soon became apparent? Dedicated storytellers--writers who knew how to get the job done.
So here I am back where I started 12 years ago. I’m at a crossroads personally and professionally. The call of the keyboard beckons me. It calls me to write about spirituality and simplicity. It calls me to document the stories of fellow disciples. It calls. It calls.
