Then the busy years went rushing by us
Long, long ago, my children, when the woman was young and the blog was new, and the bees were thick in the flowering sage, and the melting of the polar ice was but a whisper in the dark, and “social media” was a lackluster intersection on a Scrabble board (even with a triple-letter square), there was in the course of each workday a blessed twenty-minute interval of transition between the homeschooling of the children and the writing of the books.
And lo, in this brief span of minutes, hundreds of posts were born.
And the blogger had Opinions and Earnestness, and sometimes Urgency, especially regarding Literary Things. For example, the blogger most fervently wished the world to read The Firelings, because no one seemed to know of it beyond the doors of her home. And the blog flourished, and the pingbacks were abundant and formed pathways to other bloglands overflowing with rich discourse.
But it is the way of the world, my children, that all things must change. In the words of the sage, oceans rise, empires fall, and homeschooling novelists get kinda busy. Or (for let us be honest, children) distracted by Twitter, by Facebook, by Instagram; lo, even by Goodreads. And thus it was that the blog suffered and grew silent.
But now and again the blogger would read a book and long to Write a Post About It Like in the Old Days.
And so it came to pass that—
Scott, walking by: What are you giggling about?
Me: Remember when I used to be able to write a post in twenty minutes? That was pretty cool.
Melanie Bettinelli says:
Twenty minutes! You never used to do all that luscious blogging in just twenty minutes.
Oceans rise, empires fall…. Someday the empire of social media will fall and blogs will have their day again, right? I can dream.
On November 19, 2017 at 8:46 pm
Elizabeth H. says:
I thought for an awful moment you were going to say that you were going to stop blogging. Phew! (And greetings from Jerusalem!)
On November 19, 2017 at 9:02 pm
Penelope says:
{{hugs}} Lissa … ah the daily discipline of writing (or the discipline of daily writing?) … regardless, always lovely to have a blogging note from you 🙂 I still love blogging so, it is far and away my favorite ‘social medium’
On November 20, 2017 at 3:53 am
Von says:
Your post is exactly what I needed to read on this particular Monday morning in November. Thanks always. ♥
On November 20, 2017 at 6:21 am
Penny says:
Ok! I’ll read the Firelings!!! lol
You and yours are pretty wonderful, no matter where we find you on the internet! xo
On November 20, 2017 at 7:58 am
Sheila says:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. My blog is so neglected I don’t even remember the password on Blogger anymore. It used to ignite such fire in me to write, too.
On November 20, 2017 at 9:09 am
sarah says:
Lol! I miss your blogging so much, but the community momentum is kind of lost, isn’t it? I was just five minutes ago remembering something that happened in my little homeschool a few years ago and wishing I could share about it, but there’s not really anyone left with whom to share such things. Oh there are social media friends, but no homeschooling fellowship. At least not in the places I frequent. The world does feel like it’s changing.
On November 20, 2017 at 2:41 pm
Penelope says:
I continue to write about homeschooling regularly, there are still others too … I know it isn’t anything like it used to be, for myself, I still want to write and so I do 🙂 people rarely ever comment on my homeschooling bits and bobs, but that’s ok, I still want to write and share … who knows who is reading quietly and is positively affected ?
On November 21, 2017 at 4:01 am
Melissa Wiley says:
I think the homeschooling fellowship is still there, but it’s happening in different places. Facebook groups and Instagram hashtag communities are the current favorites, I would say. I remember in 2006 when homeschooling blogs were becoming abundant, a friend who ran a discussion board worried that blogs would kill all the discussion on the boards–everybody was flocking to the comment box! 🙂
The advantage a social microblogging platform like Instagram has over a personal blog is the mighty feed. (Although IG, like FB and Twitter before it, wrecked the feed by making it popularity-based rather than chronological. Sigh. I want to see my friends’ posts in order.) I’ve been glad to see people expanding their comments on IG photos into what are basically full-scale blog posts. But I will always be cautious about feed-based platforms because in the end, your content scrolls away, away, away. I keep kicking myself with reminders to continue documenting here, in this space that I own, to ensure a lasting record of the daily moments I’m moved to share. What I need to do (clearly) is take the time to set up an IFTTT that sends my Insta stuff over here. I used to manually scoop FB and Twitter tidbits into blog posts from time to time. I’m sure someone has already developed an IG-to-Wordpress hack and I’ve just not bothered to look into it.
But (circling back to my point) — I have to say I love the gentle homeschooling posts I see on IG shared by people like my friend @onedeepdrawer (my pal Kortney) and @annieandfam. Dawn Hanigan (@bysunandcandle) is doing lovely things to integrate IG and her blog, which is as rich as ever. The #bravewriterlifestyle hashtag always leaves me feeling energized. And I’ve found that I really love Instagram Stories as a way to share more personal daily glimpses of our homeschooling life–the fact that they disappear after 24 hours appeals to my sense of privacy. But I want *this space* to remain vivid, too. The nonsense post was really just going to be a wondering-out-loud what would happen if I set a timer for twenty minutes each day and let That be That. A quick post, raw, rough. It’s not the first time I’ve tried to set myself this assignment. I just keep getting busy. 😉
On November 21, 2017 at 8:57 am