Creating again

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

— Mary Oliver

I’ve not shared content online in quite some time. And I’ve been off social media almost altogether.

Looking back, I went through difficult times and found that being online wasn’t making me any happier—just the opposite. So I went offline.

Creating and then sharing into the world is scary, especially when you don’t know who’s on the other side. But it doesn’t have to be for you; it can just be for me. After all, learning in public benefits yourself more than it does anyone else. If what I share happens to connect with, be useful to, help, delight, surprise, or otherwise positively affect someone, even better.

This immediate connection is the essence and power of the web. As Justin Jackson plainly put it:

You and I have been able to connect because I wrote this and you’re reading it. That’s the web. Despite our different locations, devices, and time-zones we can connect here, on a simple HTML page.

I previously had a public journal (don’t search for it), but that was too personal for wide distribution. As with all things, finding balance is good—between private and public, quiet and loud.

Like that unfortunate hairstyle captured in your high school yearbook, this is me, at this moment in time: the words I wanted to say, the images I wanted to share.