I've wiped clean the slate.
For those of you who've been to this site before, this is a change, a big change, a complete departure from the earlier "just a bit about..." concept. I might have kept the old posts just for fun, but there was some wierd photo eating thing going on where almost all of the photos I'd posted were big sqares with tiny question marks in the middle. Not at all inviting. If this change disappoints, I apologize, but only because I was not being authentic in my earlier attempt to "blog." It was an attempt to build something that was a sand castle, not a fortress. I love Pinterest and I will continue to play there and to occasionally speak about things I find "Pinteresting" here, in fact, I may speak on many aspects of social media. I will also write about myriad subjects other than what may be current and cutting edge.
I will ask questions.
There will be themes that run through and repeat.
So...
What happened?
Two things.
When I left the a major blogging conference in January, I was left with this feeling that I hadn't met my "crowd." I had a good conference. My sister was with me and there was abundant networking, plenty of creativity, tantalizing visuals and endless wardrobe changes. There were cupcakes and photo opportunities and many, many interesting and entertaining speakers. But, it wasn't my crowd. I never wanted to blog to earn money. Don't get me wrong, if someone wanted to give me money, or publish my writing because it was great, I'd take the money. The driving force for my writing was never to promote myself and my product to be a bill board for random advertising. The majority of the speakers I heard had something to say about selling one's self. And, it seemed, a great number of attendees were interesed in just that. The world of blogging has a huge number of wonderful writers producing juicy work, or mezmerizing photographs - it is the one's with a bunch of ads running down one side that I tend to click off of...quickly. I lost my blogging juju.
And then I went to Montana. I went to Montana.
Since the age of, well I can't remember when... I wanted to write. I want to write anything and everything. I tried poetry. I copied, mimicked and paraphrased. There were original stories and dreams of children's books... a bear who traveled the world. But fear kept stopping me. What if I wrote a book and no one liked it? Well, what if?! Then I've written a book. That's the dream for me. So I went to Montana.
What was in Montana? More history. When I was young, I was lucky enough to go to Cheley Colorado Camps, two of those years were at Trails End Camp. We slept in covered wagons, made stamped leather bracelets, climbed 14,000 foot mountains and we sang, and sang, and sang. Cheley was a special experience, life changing for some and certainly memorable for most. Indelible. When I was there, I met a girl from Chicago. She was small and funny and had brown hair. A few years ago when Facebook was getting going, I threw her name into the search space and reconnected. This amazing woman was on the verge of publishing a bestselling book and I watched her dream ride on the pages of the internet, attended a book reading and salivated over the idea of attending a writing and yoga retreat in Tulum, Mexico. Then she conceived Haven Retreats in Whitefish, Montana. So I jumped and went to Haven, which is held at the serene Walking Lightly Ranch.
We were a group of strangers with a common link of writing. Now, weeks later, we are not strangers, we are a band of travelers with more in common than our love of the written word. We are strong and weak, we are dreamers and realists, we are seekers and guides. I've not written much of anything since leaving Haven. But I've stretched and grown and learned a bit about who I am. Cheers my fellow travelers, I am more for having met you all.