I'm baaaaaaack!

Once again, my oldest and wisest sister has inspired me. Thank the Gods for her!  I only seem to thrive when someone else inspires me.  I need a muse to do much more than sit on the couch and watch the daily Cold Case Files marathons on Investigation Discovery Channel.  She is an artist.  A painter.  She has started a blog that with each new post, features a piece of art that she has created.  I think it's a way for her to share her artwork easily and randomly.  I think it's a way for her to connect herself to her art in some way that will give readers (and art lovers) a way to understand the paintings she creates.  I think it's a way for her to discipline herself as well as play ... with words, the way she plays with paint.  I think it's JUST the thing I need to be doing, again!

Ha!  So, here I am ...

I started this blog page, my first ever, when we moved to Bahrain over 2 years ago.  It wasn't my idea.  To be honest, I didn't even like the idea, initially.  Several of my friends here at home had suggested I do it.  You know, to keep everyone informed of what we were doing and how it was to live in such a different country.  I think they had just gotten used to all my long, wendy emails about topics as mundane as who was bringing snacks to the next MOMS Club meeting ... surely it was my flair with words and sharp wit they feared might get lost if I didn't have some focus, some reason, to write.  You can see here the few months of sharing I did with the blog before I just didn't go back to it.

I think my first issue was that I had a hard time just sitting and writing about me and what I was doing and what I was thinking and how I was getting settled ... seemed like a lot of "me" talk that I couldn't imagine that anyone would ever be interested in.  It felt weird to write like I assumed the reader gave a rat's rear about my thoughts and perceptions.  In all my life, who cared if I found Charmin toilet paper at the store and was elated?  But, there I was ... writing about it.  And strangely, people read it and liked it.  Even though many friends and family asked me to keep writing, I didn't like how it felt. 

Secondly, I never knew what exactly to write about.  I didn't ever have any kind of mission set out for my blog.  Nothing specific that would call to it anyone with any expectations.  Take my sister for example ... she writes about her art and what that is for her.  Another sister is a real estate agent and her blog runs on those lines.  Julie in Julie & Julia wrote about her experiences with working through Julia Child's cook book.  I had ... well, I'm not really sure what I had.  Just random bits. 

... but, you know ... that's what I am.  :)  Lots of random bits.

My whole life has been like that.  I guess in school I was pretty focused.  But then when I was let loose on the world and it was my time to shine ... well ... I ran.  And started doing random bitty stuff. I waited tables for a time while I tried to figure out what I was going to be when I grew up.  Then, I decided I was going to be an actress.  When I had the opportunity to move to Los Angeles I took acting classes for a time and worked on a movie lot, but that's the closest I came to that. I took a ceramic pottery class once and decided I would be a pottery maker and make urns for cremation remains.  Then I took a stained glass class and was going to make and sell stained glass creations.  I went through massage therapy school with the intent of being an independent massage therapist.  I got certified in hypnotherapy.  At one point I was going to start making jewelry.  Then there were ther more "legitimate" things, like getting my BS in Psychology, thinking I'd go on to at least get my MS and possibly PhD.  I still think it would be fun to get certified in Sign Language and see about teaching in that capacity.  Looks like bits of randomness, doesn't it?

They say, "write what you know".  I KNOW random bits. 

We'll see what comes up.  I do know I'm better when I'm writing.  Whatever it is I'm writing about.  My life works better, my mind is clearer, I start to notice and appreciate things more, my mood is more even.  I just feel better when I'm writing.  I always have. 

So ... you're welcome to read my musings.  My thoughts.  My experiences.  It may, all or some of it, spark something for you.  Perhaps I am YOUR latent muse.  Whatever any of this means to anyone, I'm starting on this journey.  Again. 

More to come ...