Something Simple

Well, let’s not beat around the bush here. I haven’t written anything on here in forever. My excuse?

Okay, well, partly laziness. But also the fact that I haven’t felt that I’ve experienced anything “inspirational” enough lately to be able to write an entire blog post about. (Which kind of makes me laugh a little, because I did just spend two weeks in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland not too long ago. I guess I’m being really picky if that’s not inspirational enough to me)

In all honesty, though…even as I’m writing this, I still don’t feel like I’ve found anything inspirational to write about. I’ve had chronic writer’s block for a few months now. So why am I writing this post, you ask?

To write something. I just want to write something. And while trying to decide what I would write about, I came to the conclusion that all I could write about was the fact that I didn’t have anything to write about. Yeah…

But I’m going to try to keep this interesting for you.

I remember when I first decided to start this blog, I did a little research on how to actually start a blog (because really, I had no clue). One thing that I read that stuck with me was this: that the success of a blog doesn’t lie in the amount of posts or frequency of posts it has. What’s important is that when you do write a post, it’s good–even if you only write one once a month (or every few months).

So I guess this advice is partly to blame for my silence. I don’t want to waste people’s time with meaningless posts just for the sake of having posted something. That’s just dumb.

But all the while, I’ve been itching to write again. I’ve been wishing and hoping and looking for something, something, that resembles inspiration just so I could share it on this blog. That’s the whole reason I started this whole thing in the first place, isn’t it? To write about all the many inspirational things that I was experiencing in life!

But suddenly, I had run dry. It got me thinking, though. Here I am trying to think of some huge, profound, amazing post to publish, and I’ve totally forgotten just what exactly my original intentions for this blog were.

Let me quote myself a moment:

“I once heard it said that what you look for is what you see. Well, I’m looking for the small but incredible things that exist in everyday life–those things that you miss if you move too fast. A thought, a feeling, a word, a sight, a good deed, a smile, a laugh, a tear, a deep breath, a skipped heartbeat, a breezy spring day or a gentle winter snow. Beautiful, adorable, funny, sweet, peaceful, sometimes painful, but still incredible moments (add a few embarrassing ones in there, and it’s a party)”

Folks…I’ve totally lost focus. I’ve been moving too fast. I’ve missed the little things, and I’ve missed opportunities to write while I looked too hard for opportunities to write. So maybe I haven’t lost focus. Maybe I’ve been focusing too hard. Kind of like when you focus too hard on a paper for school (which I am a firm believer is possible). You think and you think and you think and you stare at your laptop screen and try to form the most brilliant sentences you’ve ever created…and after an hour, you have absolutely nothing to show for it. I’ve been there, and it’s probably one of the most frustrating things in the world.

But you know how I always got out of it?

I wrote something simple. I wrote the simple thoughts that were in my head. I wrote as if I were talking to a person in everyday life. I wrote what I knew and how I felt in words that made the most sense, even if they weren’t twenty letters long. And you know what happened? Sometimes, in those simple words, something profound surfaced (profound in my opinion, anyway). Only when I stopped trying to sound brilliant, did I actually come up with something worth writing.

I read once that the best way to get over writer’s block is to write. Write something, even if it’s a load of crap. I don’t completely agree with this advice (I mean, who wants to read a load of crap? And who wants to write it, for that matter? Time is too precious to waste with crap.) I do, however, think part of it rings true. I would re-word it just slightly though.

When you have writer’s block, and you don’t know what to write, write something simple. Write something you know.

And maybe–just maybe–something brilliant will surface.

This is what I know. I love to write. I love the little things. And maybe when I sit back and start to simply live life instead of constantly waiting for something inspirational to happen, those little things will become big things worth writing about.

So let’s give it a go. Let’s try this again.