My Very First Blog.....Ever!

Hello World! I have been thinking about starting a blog for a long time. But have had some reservations about adding my voice to the World Wide Web. There are so many voices out there now. How will mine ever get heard?

As a journaler for the past 30 years the idea of writing to the public vs privately seems kind of strange to me. My journals have been a place for me to think through my life. Just me, a pen, a piece of paper and off I can go for hours. I have stacks and stacks of journals/ diaries documenting my life since I was 7. Back then all that mattered was what boys I liked and whether or not I had ice cream that day. As I grew older life seemed to get even more complicated and as a teenager I started to feel the emotions of life which I won't bore you with details about here.

If someone had told me that in the year 2009 there would be this new kind of journaling called a "blog" that can be for the public eye I wouldn't have believed them. But here we are, year 2009 and I am joining the public conversation. This does seem kind of weird to think that all I have to do is hit the "publish post" key and off it goes into internet land. Where will it go? Who will read it? What will they think? Will I add value to their lives?

I always imagine that one day after I am long gone all those journals that have captured my life will be quite a story for someone to read. They will be shocked at who I really was. Now, I have nothing to hide. I am open to the world and telling you all straight out what boys I like and whether or not I had ice cream today :)

On this topic, I recently picked up a book at a used book sale called "Revelations, Diaries of Women". It caught my eye because this topic of writing diaries has always intrigued me and the fact that I could read excerpts from the lives of women long gone excited me. Among them are of course the most famous Anne Frank and Anais Nin along with many women I have never heard of but feel honored to get a peak at their lives. (OK, so what's really weird is that I just went back and edited that sentence twice...would never happen in a journal entry:)

This book focusses on women from the early nineteenth century to 1974. It raises the question "Why do women keep diaries? Dissatisfaction with the ways love and work have been defined is the unconscious impulse that prompts many to pour their feelings on paper and to acquire the habit of personal accounting on some more or less regular basis." (So I guess I need to quote the author now right? Since this is public? credit goes to: Mary Jane Moffat :)

I would say that during that part of the nineteenth century that sure was true and in some parts of the world today that probably still holds true. But as a woman living in the twentieth century USA I have a blog. I have a voice. I have choices. I don't need to use a diary anymore to express my dissatisfaction with love and work. I can just say it as it is. Right here. Right now!

So, as I begin to explore what it means to find my voice in the twentieth century as a woman online writing a blog, bare with me as I bare all. I am very excited to explore this new voice and I am sure over time it will become easier and fun!

Are you a woman blogger? Are you a journaler? What do you think about this new way of being in the world? I'de love to know your thoughts.

Til next time....