Write with TLC

Every time I start to write this I get start hearing George Michael's voice singing "Charity is a coat you wear twice a year" from Praying for Time yet what I want to write about is being thankful... Sometimes I think thankfulness is something we put on like a scarf to go with that charity coat twice a year. I wonder... I wonder... Oh, God, I wonder why is that thankfulness only seems to matter in November? Why is it that charity only seems to matter in December? Why is it that we want peace on Earth and love for all mankind from Thanksgiving to Christmas? Then the rest of the year, we support war and violence and greed while we blame our fellow man for circumstances beyond their control. Why, oh, why? It seems like it's so hard for us to see the world around us through clear eyes. And then I wonder... I wonder... Oh, God, I wonder would we even bother to be thankful that one month a year if we didn't feel obligated   inspired by the approach of Thanksgiv...

Sometimes it's good to take a break, even from the things we love. I've always loved to read. Books have always felt like friends to me. They took me places I never imagined possible while at the same time teaching me how to live life differently. I wanted to share the wonder I found reading books with others, so I started reviewing books. Initially I loved writing reviews. I got excited about reviewing books written by authors I loved and one's I met through myriad author events. At first I wrote reviews when I finished a book and didn't worry about keeping a schedule. It worked okay but wasn't a good way to keep viewers. So I started reading multiple books at a time, so I could have a weekly regular post. At first this was exhilarating. Reading with the purpose to review books made reading feel more purposeful. Then something happened. Somewhere along the way writing reviews started to feel like more like a chore than a pleasure. The feeling crept up on ...

Last night I went to bed thinking about how I choose topics for my blog and why sometimes I end up feeling like I have no topics left to write about. I know intellectually this isn't true, which is why I say it feels that way. There was a time when I had so many topic ideas, I would get so overwhelmed I would fall into analysis paralysis. The results were the same as when I feel like I have no topics left to write. Nothing got written. I reached a point where I felt like this blog had lost its focus. To be more pointed, I had lost my way on this blog. There were things I wanted to say, but I grew increasingly concerned I'd covered this or that or whatever and that I'd said everything I had to say on whatever topic came to mind. In the past, I was often inspired to write about what was happening in my own journey through life as well as by my observations of what was happening in the lives of those around me. But, I started to hold back. I didn't want to shar...