About

To Blog or not to Blog … ?? 1/28/11


(i.e. About this blog)

Both writing and journaling have been keys to my sanity and ability to stay grounded over the years. I find if and when I get away from writing I lose touch with myself. Guess what? I have not been making journaling a priority! So I decided what better way to work on my writing and take care of myself all at the same time than to reach out to an audience and share with others via a blog? I have been thinking about this for three years. Seriously. And I am finally taking the plunge.

I must admit that there is some fear and a little excitement to starting this new venture. The age old questions of whether one is any good, if people will love and accept the honesty and totality are bound to come up. But in reality, it doesn't really matter because it is as much about the process as anything else. Actually, this time it is REALLY about the process. Over the years, I have often tested the waters of a new relationship by sharing a poem or essay and gauging the response. Why should this online relationship be any different? So be prepared. 

My journal entries over the years have been vast. They have also been on whatever lose leaf paper or spiral binder I could find at the time. It didn't matter if it was lined 8 1/2 by 11 or blank 4 by 6. Sometimes I used an actual journal meant for journaling. Imagine that? Luckily I decided early on (in middle school) to date all of my writings and poems. So it makes it a little bit easier to decipher a timeline of the drama of my childhood and teenage years when I had to clear out of my parents house years ago. This habit made it easy to name and file my entries when I began journaling in Word documents after college. Now, here I sit. No longer with a pen and random scraps of paper, not even in a Word document, but journaling just the same. This is why the notebook paper background felt appropriate.

I hope to use this blog to share pieces of my journey as I rediscover myself. I really feel that we lose or bury much of ourselves in order to survive childhood and I had a fairly normal childhood. I know this rediscovering, this remembering is a life-long process, but my hope is that blogging & sharing will add something to the process that a private journal cannot offer: witnessing & connection. 

The topics of this blog will be far and wide; such is life. However, I am especially venturing out on a scary limb with the first series of posts I will be sharing. I have never felt comfortable in my body growing up. Interesting, because I was the skinny girl. And was blonde and kind of cute. Yet, I always felt awkward, ungraceful and lacking style. I grew up on hand-me-downs and thrift, before it was cool. So the beginnings of this blog will be me venturing out to find my personal style (because as an adult I know it is there) through participating in Kendi Everyday’s 30 for 30 Remix challenge. I also hope to share my relationship with my self and body in other ways: movement, food and definitely creativity (or my fear that I do not have any).

Andréa


About Andréa

• I care about my spirituality, the environment, healthy food and buying local. I enjoy the great outdoors, photography, reading self-help & Sci-Fi and watching movies with my husband Dan to unwind.
• Daughter, sister, wife and friend
• Widowed at 29
• Health & Laughter Coach and Laughter Yoga Teacher
• Graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Sociology and a minor in Women's Studies
• WomenStrength volunteer self-defense instructor and personal safety workshop presenter since 2006
• Mazamas member since 2007 - Climbed Kilimanjaro in 2008, Mt. Saint Helens in 2009
• Toastmasters International member since 2008