The Heart of Blogging

I've been wanting to write this post for a while but didn't know exactly what to convey or how to put it.

But the bottom line was my blog was dying.  The heart and soul of it had been lost somewhere, and I forgot quite easily why and for whom I was writing.

I've been keeping journals since I was in 7th grade and started my first online journal in 2001 when I moved from Virginia to the New York metro area.  There are over 700 posts, once very public, now hidden in the archives.  One day, I do plan on sharing them.  But probably only with the ones I love.  They are filled with raw emotions and all kind of boggled and senseless rambling (like the entry in the picture at the top of this post).  Who wants to read that anyway?

But let me tell you how extremely cathartic that exercise was for me.  And it was what I needed at a time when life didn't really make much sense (not that it makes much more sense now).  That's what writing and creating have always been for me.  A therapeutic way of digesting, processing, and relaying the world around me.

So when I became a mother, it was natural for me to start a blog focused on this new calling and identity in my life.  Mother's Mementos was born.  It took me some time to come up with the name, but as soon as I did, I fell in love with it.  It conveyed exactly what I wanted:  a collection of keepsakes - recipes, crafts, photos, stories, and most importantly, my personal reflections on this new journey.   I wrote for two purposes:

1. With the hopes that one day my children would read this and have a better understanding of who their mom - and let's not forget dad - are.  And who knows?   Maybe with God's grace, they'll even get a few nuggets of wisdom out of it when they themselves become parents one day.  
2. A desire to connect and share with other folks, particularly moms and other creative souls.

However, after starting Mother's Mementos, I stumbled on the scrumptious world of food blogs and couldn't resist.  I wanted to find my place among the glorious scene of foodies around the world.  So I started Eaternal Bliss in 2011 with the hopes of spotlighting my edible creations and finding my niche in an already overcrowded and endless plethora of mouth-watering blogs.

Eaternal Bliss picked up momentum quickly and gained a wider audience.  It became much more popular than Mother's Mementos ever was (and probably will be).   People love food, and who am I to blame them?  I'm one of them!  But the thing was I'm just as passionate about other things as I am about food.  I thought I could maintain two separate blogs, but then realized I could hardly keep up with one (let alone all the social media that goes along with keeping a blog)!

After a difficult situation in mid 2011, I took some time away from the blogging world.  I had a lot of time to think about everything under the sun, including the blogs.  When the dust started to settle and I could finally muster up the energy and desire to write again, my heart naturally inclined to Mother's Mementos.

I think I knew this was where I always belonged.

I'm certainly no expert on the topic and there are plenty of folks with wildly popular blogs out there who offer great tips and advice, but my one takeaway for anyone starting up or keeping a blog is stay true to yourself and write what's on your heart.   I think the rest just naturally falls into place.