Because I didn't do enough shameless blathering about myself in the previous post, here's more. Apparently this blogging thing really speaks to the selfish narcissist in me.
I explained that I've been wanting to blog for some time, that I'm inspired by the world around me and always have been, and that I'd like to share some of my thoughts on those things with y'all (or, apparently, 'yins', if you're from Pittsburgh).
But, what inspired this grandiose dream of yours, you ask? Because I know you're all asking.
Well, over the last 3 and a half years, I've experienced some wonderful and rather drastic changes in my life, and have had lots of cool experiences. I took a leave of absence from a job I was never sure was for me, and I went to graduate school and trained in an entirely new discipline. I bought a new car. I travelled to Cape Breton Island, Maine, Montreal, London (Canada), St. Lucia, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Israel, Providence, and Portugal. I bought a house. Most hugely, I gave birth to two beautiful children.
This time of immense change has been the source of much inspiration, rumination, joy and lonliness, sometimes all at once. But it has been an amazing and powerful time.
I have probably learned more about myself than I ever knew was possible. And sometimes, I'm in my head so much, that I'm bored with myself. So I guess this space is also a forum to put some of that cognitive diarrhea into the ether. It's just wonderful that I have a god given right to use the word diarrhea whenever I want, isn't it?
Let the saccharine navel gazing recommence.
Being in my head for almost 4 years has taught me the following:
1) I find extreme beauty in the every day. A bare branch. A fallen leaf. A sparkly sidewalk.
2) I used to think I wasn't passionate about anything, but I was wrong. I now recognize that creating things has always been a passion, and has always brought me fulfillment.
3) My family, and especially my children have taught me how deeply I could love.
4) We create our own happiness. Much of that results from gratitude for all that we have
4) I am one extremely lucky chick. One of the luckiest, what with all the blessings that have been bestowed on me. I am so grateful.
The result of so much transition, isolation and lots of time has been that I've had opportunities for great experimentation. I've (sort of) learned to sew, to knit, to cook, to take (and edit) better photographs, to salsa dance, and to write a blog. And that's not even including all the mad skillz I picked up in grad school.
The most important skills in my mind though, as those that relate to being a mom. And of course, it is by far the steepest learning curve. There are too many to enumerate here, but a few highlights: how to calm a crying baby, how to breastfeed, how to make a birthday ice cream cake, how to change a diaper full of a poo explosion calmly on my lap - - while sitting on a plane preparing for take off, how to travel abroad with babies, how to drive across town with two small children and keep them calm, how to drive across town with two screaming children and not lose my mind, and how to sort of function on less than 6 hours of interrupted sleep a night. So, besides navel gazing, this blog will also be about my pursuits learning new things, and experimenting with various skills.
Basically, it's just a big 'ole hodgepodge. And because I'm a closeted ADD case (truly, I think I'm undiagnosed), it's all over the place. Enjoy.
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