All This Nothing

I was a Blogger girl back in the day (2007-2012) My impossibly cute name, 152insightsintomysoul.blogspot.com, announced both my incurable dorkiness and my undying love for You’ve Got Mail. When blogging became less fashionable among my group of friends and I married and moved to Oklahoma, my poor little blog became a cobweb site, as they used to say.

But I’d never been all that active in the first place.

In fact, when I was on post number 40 in 2008, I announced that maybe I would just try to make it to 152 posts, at which point I would give away a You’ve Got Mail-themed gift basket, including

• the movie, of course
• the soundtrack
• a copy of Pride and Prejudice with a scarlet rose
• Boy, by Roald Dahl
• a pop-up dinosaur book
• hot tea and a mug
• a small Starbucks gift card
• Echinacea and Vitamin C
• Tic-Tacs
• Scotch tape
• a bouquet of sharpened pencils
• daisies or daisy-themed items
• a box of Kleenex
• an embroidered handkerchief
• Anne of Green Gables
• Blue, by Joni Mitchell, on which “River” appears
• “twinkle lights” and funky ornaments
• a mango
• a Clark bar
• a lone reed
• an “I ♥ NY” item
• a dollar
• the Shoe books by Noel Streatfeild

It was a nice thought. But I never even got close to 152. I wrote my final post in 2012, ending a recap of the previous year, probably the worst of my life.

I’ve never taken my old blog down. It’s like a time capsule, an old me frozen in amber, and sometimes it’s good to look at it and remember, even if it stings a little. There are references to movements I no longer trust, comments from couple friends who have since gone through painful divorces, and “inspirational” sermonettes from a girl who didn’t know much of anything yet. But it’s my history, and I’m glad it’s there when I want to see it.

Eleven years later, it’s as good a time as any to begin again. Knowing my track record of lackadaisical blogging, I will not attempt to make any pronouncements of turning over a new leaf or declarations that This Time Will Be Different^TM.

But I need a place that belongs to me, a place I can go when I feel the need to say something more about my heart, my interests, my dreams—a place to send my cosmic questions out into the void (thanks, Nora.)

So, here I am. Follow me if you want infrequent (or frequent? Who knows?) posts about writing and reading children’s books, teaching littles, exploring faith, and making art. Or if you just want to be friends. I’d like that.

Oh, and if you have any ideas for my YGM basket, let me know. It’s still a pretty great idea.