Yes, I'm Going To Do It.

Yes, I'm going to do it. I'm going to write. I've always wanted to do it. I already do it in bits and pieces: a paper here, a note there, a post here, a tweet there, a letter once a year to all my friends. Thirteen years ago, after moving to another world (Mississippi), leaving all the people I knew and loved and coming to a place where I didn't know anybody, I vowed that I wouldn't let them forget me. At least once a year I'd bring them up to date on me. Of course, "me" includes "mine": my immediate family that made this move to "outer Mongolia" with me. We moved on June 1, 1996, and the very following Christmas, the "journey" began. I kept a box and stuck bits and pieces of things in it to help me remember what happened; and then, once a year, I'd get it out and write my letter. As the years progressed, I began to have a desire to put my letters into book form. I had limited encouragement from some of my "readers", so I thought it might make it. It seems that every year a different person would be touched in a special way and they'd find a way to let me know. It has never been the same person. Never. That fact has always been my motivation to stay the course. I love doing it, but I must admit, there have been times when I really would have just rather foregone that one time. I always have self doubts and think, "This one is just not good enough." But amazingly, somebody appreciated it. Wow!

For the last several years, I would think that I'm going to finally compile my book, but life always gets in the way, and the year passes, and no book. I saw the movie "Julie & Julia" this year, and it piqued my interest in this form of communication: blogging. I didn't, however, connect that idea with the idea of my book until just recently. I have endeavored to begin creating an online presence over the past year and have come to the knowledge that blogging is a good way to further that cause. You must have something to write about. . . . and then I realized: I have 13 years of stuff to write about already! I always tried to make my letters as short as possible because of my love/hate relationship with the good ole' U.S. Postal Service, and even then they were five and six pages long. But they could've been a lot longer! And the nice thing about blogs is that they are open ended. A book has an ending.

And then, the theme. What is the point? What is the common thread that ties all my letters together? It hit me about a year ago. They're about becoming. Life really does have meaning. Even in the little, ordinary, sometimes dreary details. It's all a process. And the verses in Jeremiah 29 came to me (vs 11-14): "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive." No, I don't think Mississippi is captivity! (Is it apropo to say "LOL" in blogging?) It's all about His Plan For Me. It is a journey, and I love it!

And so, this is the beginning. But it's really more like in the middle because I'm going to go back just like I would've done in a book and start at the real beginning. I'll probably take side roads now and then and certainly will "flesh out" my original letters. I won't use real names (to protect the innocent), and I more than likely won't include every mundane detail (this one got married, this one graduated, etc., etc.), but I will include the spirit of those details. Current events will most definitely be interspersed here and there. And eventually, I will pass the current letter by, and everything after that will be my new letters. Hopefully, it will be something that you will enjoy. I know I'm going to enjoy doing it!