It's Funny That Way

I think that this is the longest I have been away from this space since I began writing 4 or 5 years ago. It feels both refreshing and oddly foreign to be typing away at my keyboard again filling in this blank electronic document with the words that will bestow upon the reader the things we have been up to lately. Being away has been good. Writing here now is good too.

I have always felt this weird small sense of loss when a blogger that I regularly follow stops blogging with any regularity and then oftentimes stops blogging altogether. Sometimes these bloggers will make their pages private; their words now privy to only those that they have selected to read about their lives. I enjoy reading about the lives of the bloggers that I follow. I like being able to peek into their lives and glimpsing the pieces that they allow me to. I suppose that this space is the same way for some of you.

I am still trying to figure out how much of my life I want to share in this space. Actually, I think what I am really trying to do is to find out how much of my family's life I am able to share without one day having them look back on these posts in horror at what I have chosen to share. My children are growing now, as most children are wont to do, and they are more than ever showing me that they are their own people with their own thoughts and ideas apart from me. I have known this all along, but knowing something and actually seeing it evolve into something beyond an abstract thought has been a bit of an adjustment for me.

Electronics are a funny. There was a point when I was writing in this space just to write something. It was addicting. Just like Facebook. Or my phone. I made a conscious decision to step away from Facebook at the end of December. I have logged into the website 3 times since then. I don't miss it at all now. I found that once I stopped logging into Facebook logging into my phone became less important. And then I realized that I needed to pull away from this space as well too.  It was hard at first to not check my account several times a day. Crazy hard. But slowly, the pull of Facebook (and then my phone and then this space) just lost its hold on me. I felt free. Electronics are funny that way. They have such a magnetic pull for me. To finally feel like I have broken free of that pull has been a powerful experience, but I know first hand just how easily that pull comes back.  I don't want to feel enslaved to this space, Facebook, or my phone. For me, all three are intertwined. Finding a healthy balance will be most challenging for me. I am going to pay attention to the pull and if things get to a point where I don't feel comfortable with then I will unplug again. And I will do that again and again for as long as I need to in order to maintain a healthy relationship (If there even is one?) with electronics.

 In the next few days/week I will let you know how everyone is doing and what they have been up to this second half of winter.  I just wanted to stretch my fingers for this post and get rid of any kinks in my knuckles that come from typing. : )

I guess what I am really trying to say is that I am back (for now).