I remember wandering around my yard with my camera in the rain five years ago, plotting my first blog posts.
A close friend spied me across the yards and gave me a playful teasing. Because yes, I was photographing the rain coming out of my gutters.
I remember feeling the tiniest bit embarrassed that she had seen me. That she knew what I was up to.
Because really - who was I to start blogging? What did I even have to say?
But I was determined just the same. So I kept photographing. And I started writing.
It was simultaneously scary, thrilling, and embarassing to hit "publish" on those first few posts. But I did it anyway.
And now it's been five years. Five years of sitting down in the early morning light, tea in hand, talking to you.
I don't recall precisely why I started this habit.
I think part of it was a desire to create a little transparency for my business. So that my customers had a better understanding of who I was. That I was a mama like them, not a big corporation somewhere.
I think part was a desire to have a creative outlet with two small children at home. Because I love to write and it had been a while. And what exactly did I do just for the joy of doing it back then? Just for me? I think this was the first thing I started doing almost selfishly. Because I wanted to.
And now five years have somehow passed and my small, quiet blog has remained a small and quiet blog, yet grown to embrace a beautiful community I never expected to find.
And now I write because I need it.
Writing feeds me. It gives me connection to a greater community as I live my quiet, semi-hermit life each day.
And somehow along the way I developed the confidence that I do have something to say. And I believe that sharing here can bring good to your lives and the lives of your kids.
And I didn't expect that.
I'm talking about this today because I know we have full lives. We're busy. Over-extended with too much on our have-to-do list.
But what's on your want to do list?
What could you do if all you had was time?
Then do that. Taste it. Dream about it. Make it a part of you.
Move toward it in small measured steps or great hungry bounds - beginning today.
Because even the long, hard days should be woven with something that we do just for the joy it brings our hearts.
Find what makes your heart sing.
Today. Tomorrow. Any chance you get. Becuase it will help you come alive.
And the joy that doing it brings into your life will transform you.
In ways you never imagined.
Thanks for coming here. I'm honored to have you as a part of my community. And I daresay you have changed me far more than I've changed you.
Love,
Rachel
