I often want to be a once-a-week blogger. They are such cool cats!
You know, the folks who vow to write once a week and follow through on their pledge, year after blogging year.
They pick a day of the week. Say, Monday. Mimi’s Monday Musings. Or Tammy’s Tuesday Tossings. Or Wendy’s Wednesday Whisperings.
And they succeed. to. write. every. week.
People love ’em because they’re reliable. They are–excuse me, must reference Roget’s Thesaurus (except it’s gone incognito, so must search)–they are trustworthy, credible, destined, promised, reliant, predictable.
People wake up on Thursday morning and say: Today is the day that Thaddea writes her amazing blog and I must go read it! Their brains register it like this: Thursday. Thaddea. Blog. Then their fingers scurry to look and see. YES! There it is, like clockwork. The reliable once-a-week blog post.
I am trying to write this in a humorous way, but it’s true. I often long to be like my blogging friends who write with such a definitive predictable schedule. My husband writes a weekly column in the local newspaper with such fierce dedication to regularity and paycheck. For 42 years now he’s published every single week.
One can witness the benefits of this: people fully expect and wait for said column/blog and are not disappointed. It can also create stress, perhaps, because one MUST find something to write about. And something rarely fails to appear. Perhaps one spends the week musing in the background: what shall I write about? And the words spill themselves onto the blank page to create amusing, educational, information or personal stories.
I have not been able to succeed at this venture until this very moment. Last Monday I wrote a blog post. And now Monday rolls around and–wa la! Another blog post. Wouldn’t it be nice if Monday became My Monday Majestic Musings?
Alas, it probably shall be an unrealized dream. Because something in me wants to flow. It wants to birth an idea, inspiration, amusement and allow it to hatch like a brown-and-white speckled egg. It wants to break through amazing with yellow chicken feathers–always unpredictable! always surprising! always you-never-know-which-day. always you-never-know when she’s gonna disappear or appear. always a fairy feather away from knowing anything with certainty.
(I did blog every day for a year in 2009-2010. Perhaps this 365-day reliability birthed this desire for freedom from deadlines and appearances.)
I also sometimes long to write about predictable subjects. Don’t you love when you know what you’re in for? You visit so-and-so’s blog and know you’ll read about spirituality. About their beautiful dog. About their political opinions. About their humorous thoughts. About their garden. About wildlife, nature, creative stories, delightful poetry.
Now people might think this here blog is reliable, but I feel it’s all over the map. One minute you’re writing about a thesaurus, followed by a long leisurely jaunt down memory lane to a local point jutting into Lake Superior. Sometimes it’s about cutting wood, but the next minute meditation. Shall we discuss a Cuisinart food processor? Or emotional feelings? Dangerous volcanoes?
Seriously, Kathy, can’t you stick to a topic like Lake Superior or your little house in the big woods? Why must you ramble all over the map, hither and yon? Be reliable, can’t you?
The truth of the matter is this: Even though part of me longs to write more reliably in both number of blogs and subjects, the majority of me chooses freedom. The freedom to write three times a week and then disappear for nine months. To follow the Muse wherever she leads. To wax and wane like the predictable unpredictable moon.
(But lest you think I am opposed to longevity and regularity and reliability: not true. In two days we will have been married 42 years. I held one job for 28 years and another for 32 years. We’ve tended and nurtured and planted deep roots on our land for 37 years. Reliability happens, readers.)
It’s just that this blog is a space where words appear unexpectedly. Where someone waves a magic wand and a fairytale appears. Or a serious longing. Or tears of grief. Where seeds sprout and tomato plants wither on the vines. Where anything can happen and I haven’t the slightest idea what will shimmer or dissolve next.
I want to be a reliable, predictable and trustworthy blogger…is that true? Perhaps it’s only a pipe dream. Because I also prize the unexpected, unanticipated, unpredicted and unforeseeable.
What about you, my reliable and out-of-the-box readers? Where do you generally fall on the continuum?
Lake Superior Spirit 
You’re not an unreliable blogger, Dear Kathy. You’re an inspired one. I, for one, prefer to write when inspired. I wrote more often at first, believing a presence would help sell books. But I am not a good self-promoter, so I decided to write what I want, when want.
Whenever I receive a notification that you have written, it’s a nice little surprise. Much better than the predictably of a certain day. XOXO
Wow, thank you, Stacey. I think you are helping turning my attitude around. This has been challenging me at times for years but now it is starting to become clearer. Yes, it feels like inspiration is what needs to light the match. And too much predictably sometimes leads to boredom. Glad you choose to write when inspired. And thank you for being you! 💗
*smile*
I like surprises more then predicability too. Sometimes, for the blogs that I know will be there every week, I put off reading them, taking them for granted. Whereas a surprise, well, I need to read that as soon as possible, because it could be anything!
Oh my goodness, Dawn! I never once thought about it that way! You are right—it could be easier to put off reading the more regular blogs. Thanks for the reassurance. That one little part of me that longs for reliability and predictability is listening and taking in this advice. Thank you!
You are reliable, my dear friend, more than you obviously realize. I rely on a post from you that makes me smile, think, wonder, and sometimes even fly around the room at times. Each time, you deliver. So, you may not, cannot, call yourself unreliable. (Isn’t there an Andy Williams song like that somewhere?) And reliably so, I laughed out loud when I saw the photo of the Hokey Pokey from your wedding day, almost 42 days ago. Why oh why did the hokey pokey go away? It allowed everyone to be silly and free during a solemn occasion, like a wedding. Darn, you just gave me an idea. Maybe people should do the hokey pokey at funerals and memorial services, particularly the ones that are called “celebration of life.” Well, I sure hope you and Barry do the Hokey Pokey on your anniversary and CELEBRATE your love.
First of all–I LOVE reading your blog every week you reliable blogger, you. But you are also totally free & unexpected because I never ever know what wild & crazy & amazing things will come out of your creative writing. (And true life stories, too, like this week.) I so admire how–come Friday morning–something in the brain urges “Roughwighting! and off we go. Thanks for your kind words. Apparently there was a part of me that needed positive vibes around this issue. Next time that inner one starts urging more reliability I’m gonna tell her what you–and all these others have said. And, like the Hokey Pokey, turn myself around. Tee hee. Thanks for the anniversary wishes but that guy–I can guarantee–will not be doing the Hokey Pokey. Not even sure if he did it at the wedding!
Awww, come on. He has to do the Hokey Pokey now. Your readers are expecting it! 🙂 When you think of the lyrics and the action of the Hokey Pokey, I think we’ve all been doing it for the past six months. As you say, we’ve all been “turning ourselves around” figuring out just what is going on during these Pandemic days. xo
Yep, turning ourselves around–again and again–that’s what we’ve been doing!
Because “that’s what it’s all about!!” 🙂
This blog, your blog is like setting with a good friend having tea or coffee, on the deck or in a cafe, even during a comfortable meal where the conversations just flow from one topic to another. Someone story jogs a memory, a creative idea is placed out into the air, thoughts fly, not like the one in your tea…
Your followers know and follow you because they like to content not the reliably of a regular posting, yet I for one are enjoying have your presence on a regular basis once again.
Happy Anniversary, I hope you do the Hokey Poky around the little house in the woods with joy and fresh happiness!
Aww, Jeff, thank you! I FEEL like everyone is in the room when I write. Right now you’re sitting over there on the recliner. Hi, Jeff. Hope the plumbing issue is resolved. Hope the landlords behave better. Hope you’re healing up fine and getting out in nature every once in a while. Thanks also for the anniversary wishes and your kind words! xoxo
What everyone else said. I am reliable – I reliably blog whenever the urge strikes. What is not reliable is when the urge might strike. I don’t like being locked into a schedule or a topic or anything else. I am who I am, although it’s taken a lot of years to figure out who that is.
Now that’s a good way of putting it. We are reliable when the urge strikes. (Which we never know when that might be.) So good that you’ve realized that you are who you are over the years. I find myself filled with contradictions–but, if memory serves correct, I’ve written about that before in blog posts–and may again. Thank you so much, Carol.
Kathy – that Hokey Pokey pic made me smile! Happy 42! You know that sometimes I do the daily stones for a month, but they’re just short observations. Even so, I’m glad when the once a day for a month is over because writing every day is a challenge for me. When I’m not committed to the stones, I tend to let time go by because there is so much I want to do which doesn’t include sharing on the blog. Finally, I realize 2 weeks have gone by and maybe I should do a post. I love getting your blog on my e-mail. I often make myself a cuppa and sit down to see what’s happening in your mind and heart. I like that you wander from topic to topic – totally unpredictable you are! Keep it up. PS Snow due here tomorrow.
Barb, I started laughing out loud. One person says I’m totally reliable and then you say I’m totally unpredictable. Isn’t that the way it is? Here is a quote by Carl Jung that speaks to this: “I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, and rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum.” May have to write a post about that one of these days. It’s lovely imagining you sitting down with a cuppa to read and–oh my goodness, can it be true?–snow already??!! It is far too soon! Our temps are down in the 50’s for the next few days, but we probably won’t get snow until sometime in mid or late October. Thanks for the anniversary wishes and you guys stay well and happy in your neck of the mountain woods!
Happy anniversary, Kathy! ❤
There are good arguments to be made for reliability and for the unexpected/unpredictable. I've done both. I'm not sure where I am now. Somewhere in between, maybe? I feel like I've been living in the liminal for a while now.
Dawn's comment was really interesting. I never really thought about it before, but think she's right. I do tend to put off reading the blogs that I know post regularly but jump right in for the surprises.
Thank you for the anniversary wishes, Robin. You are so right that there are positives and negatives on the reliability/unpredictable continuum. Each has its good points. Robin, you have blogged much more steadily than I have over the years, and I do admire that. Now you and Dawn have me thinking. You know what regular blogs I love? The ones that have unexpected and unpredictable twists in them! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, it’s so good to see you here again.
As you know I used to be one of those weekly bloggers. Haven’t done a post in years. I too was all over the map. Every so often I think about going back. I love your posts when you make them. Miss you occasionally when you take a break. And I don’t mind at all that you are all over the board, it makes it more fun.
Lisa, I remember remembering (!) that you published your blog on a certain day. Isn’t it interesting how parts of ourselves may love blogging and other parts enjoy the non-blogging existence? If you do start to blog again–be sure to let me know. Thank you for continuing to read and enjoy this blogs here. I am now going to embrace being “all over the board”. xoxo
Kathy, I know I can rely on you to write inspired posts about everything under the sun. It does not matter when, the flow is nice!
Under the sun, under the moon and under the stars! Just went to check–I have written 1,061 posts in almost eleven years here. Phew…that’s a lot of flow! Thank you, sweets.
Kathy, I put your blog in the category of “personal blog” and in my book that gives you complete freedom to explore any subject that interests you and as often or as infrequently as you feel inspired. I used to try to keep three blogs going to cover my three major interests but that grew too complicated and so I combined them all together and that’s where I’ve landed, a hodgepodge. So be it. I would take variety over predictability any day! 🙂 I love your blog just the way it is.
Barbara, thank you, my dear. Next time an inner thought accuses, “I am so unreliable with blogging” I am going to suggest it goes back and reads all these kind comments. You are so right that we personal bloggers can go wherever we want, which is the gift of it! You might remember that I tried starting a spiritual/non-duality blog years ago, but it fell the way of your other blogs. It’s hard to keep more than one going. We could call our blogs Happy Hodgepods. I like it! (And you, too.)
I started out posting three days a week, then switched to two, finally landed on one day a week for the last 5 years or so. Nowadays, between getting my novel cleaned up, and all that’s on my mind with what’s happening in the world, I’m posting when I feel I need to express something. I like to stay on the theme of philosophy and introspection, but that gets too heavy over time. So I add mundane daily life happenings and fun outings with photos.
I enjoy your eclectic blog, and I know many others do, too. It’s interesting how we’re drawn to certain blogs, and others we will read once or twice but then lose interest. I don’t necessarily think it’s due to a boring blog, but rather, if we “click” with the human behind the blog. The ones I’ve stuck with for years (like yours and a few others), I look forward to reading because I feel a sort of kindred connection.
As always, thanks for the opportunity to discuss.
Lori, you may be right about that kindred connection we form with the people who write the blogs we stay with over the years. We sense that there’s a spark or juice or resonance there with the other person.
It’s interesting how your pattern of blogging has changed over the years. And I get what you mean about how the philosophical can get really deep and it’s time to switch things up. Wondering what our blogs (if they exist!) will look like in five or ten or twenty years??!!
You call it hokey pokey, we call it hokey cokey, how funny! 🙂
I love your posts, I love your style and I don’t want you to be come a regular blogger because what happens with those is they reach burn-out very quickly and tend not to return. You – you return, even when it takes you a long time, you do: the blog draws you back somehow. When you get drawn away it’s the offline life that entices you, it’s more natural, more organic. When regular bloggers get drawn away, it’s from exhaustion and boredom because they’ve been pushing themselves to constantly post, even when they don’t feel like it.
Just continue to be yourself. Hugs. x
Hokey cokey–never heard of that before! How funny indeed! I am thinking about your perspective on regular bloggers now. You could very well be right. So often when I’m called offline it’s because my inner monk or spiritual being wants to dive into deep inner work. Then it just doesn’t feel right to be focusing outward as much. But, even then, my connections with others in real-physical-life feeds me more. It’s hard to say. It has actually been fun getting this feedback because of the part of me that has longed to be more “reliable” and “regular”. Now am celebrating the other side of it all. Thank you for continuing to be YOU!
You are already, to me, a reliable, predictable and trustworthy blogger. I can rely on you to be unpredictable, and you never let me down because you are so trustworthy!
Don’t ever change, Kathy. You are perfect just the way you are. 🙂
Awww, thank you, Joanne–I am smiling ear-to-ear!
I believe the best writing happens spontaneously.
Steven, thank you for sharing this. Spontaneity has always felt really fun to me, too!
I like the way you write – wherever it happens – whatever it is about. As you may know (probably do), I have 3 WordPress blogs (and actually our business website is technically WordPress too but in some kind of different way). I rarely write on Missouri Wilderness, though I intended to write more regularly when I started it. It was my first. I wrote Gazing in the Mirror with the intention it would have one blog for every day, even though I didn’t write every day but over about 3 years time got it done. It is spiritual – definitely – but also about Life in all its aspects but Life is spiritual to me. I hoped to published but think the obstacles (which are many for this one) will prevent that. Now I write (almost without fail) every day for my Missing Mom blog about all things adoption related. That is because BOTH of my parents were adopted and BOTH of my sisters gave up babies to adoption and because I’ve gotten kind of passionate about everything I’ve learned about it. It is also in support of a manuscript I’ve been shopping, for a literary agent, since January but at the request of one such literary agent, am embarked on a revision now. So I’m all over the place too . . . but I write a lot, even when it is just to express some thoughts on Facebook. I can’t help myself.
I really should proofread more thoroughly but my brain is still sleepy. This is my first thing and the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. LOL
No worries about proofreading over here! More coffee, please… *smile*
Deb, I smiled at your last sentence–you can’t help yourself but write. You are definitely a writer because you long to express yourself and it can’t be denied. And I so admire how you so regularly go to your little cabin and write. What a very cool practice! You are all over the place in terms of variety of expression, but you are steadfast in your dedication to it. Dogged persistence may be the turtle that wins the writing “race” in the end. I so wish you much luck in getting your manuscript revised and eventually published! xoxo
I am constantly struggling to BE reliable, predictable, trustworthy, so I envy your confidence in just going with the flow. Left to my own devices, I’m afraid I’d be a lazy slug who never accomplished anything of note, and who would look back on my life in old age and think, “What a dreadful waste.” That may or may not be true, but it’s an honest fear, and one that drives me. As for you and your blog, it’s always a tremendous, entertaining joy whenever it shows up, and whatever the topic!
Cindy, it’s so interesting how we’re coming at this from different angles all the time. This is reminding me of a continuum where one end might say “predictability or reliability” and the other end might say “unpredictability or unreliability”. And we perhaps always sense what the balance for ourselves might be. One of us might need to aim three notches left of center, and the next one six notches right of center. We kinda know where we tend to be. What I keep learning is that there is an innate goodness inside of us, no matter how many notches off center we are. And there can be a gentle kind of accountability to ease us on the pathway (and beating up doesn’t help). Thank you for your continued presence showing up on my blog for many, many years. ❤
Well now, Kathy, you did stop writing for a few years or was a year? Can’t remember but I do enjoy what ever you write about and when even you write. It is always unique in some way and I love the pics. Is the school house still operational?
Hi Yvonne! I did stop writing several times, but I don’t think I lasted a whole year. Usually have returned within 9-10 months. (But not sure exactly, that will remain a story unless someone decides to research and it probably won’t be me, lol!) Thank you for reading so much all these years, and for sharing your thoughts and opinions and ideas. YES, the school is still operational. It was a wonderful place to work, and our kids enjoyed their elementary school years there. Here is a blog post I wrote about it back in 2013: https://upwoods.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/day-in-my-life-inside-a-two-room-schoolhouse/
Don’t change one little bit, your blog is a delight to visit and read. It’s better to write when the mood takes you than write because this is the day you write.
Bright Blessings
Tilly, I like your Bright Blessings always! It makes everything brighten up just reading that blessing. Thank you for your kind words and I will have to remember that the next time something inside decides it wants to me more predictable. 🙂
🙂
Congratulations on those 42 years! I try to post once a fortnight, usually on a Sunday or Monday but it doesn’t always work like that. To be honest, I don’t really notice the patterns to people’s posts because I can’t usually keep up with everyone that quickly anyway!
Thank you so much, Andrea! We had a lovely socially-distanced evening with good friends on Wednesday night. It has been so interesting to read everyone’s comments here because it seems we all have different ways of looking at this. I am always noticing patterns and stats (my years of accounting and bookkeeping seem to contribute to this) but also noticing the ebb and flow of watching patterns and stats creatively break up and reform and keep expressing newness. Off to read blogging posts today!
Writing once or twice a week on a variety of topics is a good idea.
I think a lot of people would agree with your advice. Thanks for commenting.
You have an uplifting blog
Thank you so much for saying so!
I am doing good to reliably post something once a month. And my topics are all over the place.
I long to be a reliable blogger too…or a reliable blog reader for that matter.
I like that we long, even though longing can sometimes be challenging. I like that you’re vulnerable and admit your longing. We just do the best we can, don’t we?