In the last many weeks I have begun several writings only to leave them unfinished. My ideas and words wouldn’t click and I wondered what was going on. Why have I stalled out? Like other times in the past I left them to marinate in my thoughts while I went on with life. One did finally surface and move to completion Do You Have a Yoga Butt, but others lay in my inbox of ideas – languishing.
I have an audio copy of Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project. I listen to it mostly at night. This means a frequent rewind to catch up on the chapters where I fell a sleep. This also means that I end up listening to certain chapters or parts there of many times. One statement she makes I have heard repeatedly, her resolution ‘To Be Gretchen’. I’ve noted in the past that I don’t always get the import of something on the first go around. So I’m happy for all the rewinds as it finally struck me – I need To Be Linda.
What does this mean To Be Linda? As I consider how this would show up in my life I saw that the style of post I have been writing in is not sustainable and not my only manifestation. I do love to explore subjects that touch at the very heart of life, but I also have times when I just want to chat. My solution, I’ve created a new category called Chats. A minor change you may say, as in “what’s the fuss”? I thinks it just like how my dog Henry sometimes wants to lie on the floor on his sheep skin and other times wants up on the couch on his leopard skin fabric throw. We both want a choice of perspectives.
Chats will free me to write ‘chatty things’. Conversations we might have over tea (could be beer or wine, depending if I work that night) on a sunny afternoon while sitting in lawn chairs. Casual conversations with a lively give and take. I hope to throw out ideas that you will take up and respond to so the conversation can grow from all of us. I get emails from people which I love to receive. It is a magical feeling to know that what goes on with me resonates with you. It is different when we converse in a public forum where anyone can see our conversation. A little scary? Another line from Gretchen, “People don’t notice your mistakes as much as you think.”
I was sure everyone noticed my mistakes and so I never wanted to make an audio tape of yoga. My thought, it is one thing to mis-conjugate a verb in class, another to be recorded. I suppose my husband Neil pointing out when I make a malapropism has gone a long way to cure me of being too self conscious. I’ve also read enough books where the wrong word was left in or words were doubled. I think if a mass publication can have flaws, there is a wide berth for written public conversation. So if you want to comment and hesitate, I hope I’ve offered some space to find ease and for ‘you to be you’.
Look forward to seeing you in the Chat room.
Linda Logan 