When I began this blog, it was to help people make healthy choices and improve their sense of wellbeing. I envisaged passing on nutritional information and writing about complementary therapies etc., but never imagined that I would be investing so much of myself and my life in this new project or that it would become so chock full of food photos and recipes!
It puts so much pressure on a person to produce something that’s worthy of a photograph and a post, you feel like you can no longer mindlessly throw together a bowl of muesli or a hummus sandwich without making it look beautiful: you feel so guilty if you don’t at least try to create some culinary art. Every evening my husband feels like he has to sit back out of shot and wait to eat until I have finished photographing the meal! (Have you seen the Instagram Husband tongue-in-cheek video about just that?)
Recently, I’ve been feeling like I’ve pretty much said all I have to say in terms of health and nutrition and that I’m just repeating myself. I’m sure you’re all getting as bored as I am of endless recipes for smoothies and raw treats, there are so many bloggers doing this who are much more creative and qualified than me.
The other day I was scheduling posts for another break for osteopathy next week and afterwards I realised I had used up all my draft posts. I had no ideas in the pipeline at all. This was at once anxiety-inducing and liberating. I even contemplated stopping blogging. Was that a sigh of relief at the back there?!
And then I commented on Brian Lageose’s very funny post 10 Things To Do While Waiting For An Inspirational Blog Idea, to which he responded with another gentle push in the direction of writing more anecdotes, more short stories.
I love writing and have always written in some form, but I have no confidence and also feel I have no original ideas. I tend to be reactive rather than creative, I respond to other people’s posts with some witty retort or family anecdote or a blast from the past, a light-hearted observation. I write fact not fiction. Even my poems are based in reality.
The posts I’ve published about my dad, my teacher, my children and so on, have gained a lot of attention and compliments and I would love to do more. My difficulty is that I can’t easily write posts that involve the younger members of the family or indeed older, still living members, it isn’t fair to them and parents don’t always want photos of their children splashed around the internet, with which I am in full agreement.
So, I did what I always do when feeling at a loss, I looked in the fridge (no.1 on Brian’s list) and found this amazing mango chia pudding; I looked in the raw chocolate cupboard (averting my eyes from the raw chocolate almonds* while also resisting a bar of Pitch Dark*) – and then I took a shower!
My inspiration always comes at the most inopportune moments, generally when I’m just dropping off to sleep, when I’m in the bathroom (!) and most often when I’m taking a shower! This last is the most frustrating because not only is there no access to pen and paper, let alone iPad, but I have to finish washing, conditioning, drying, dressing and styling before I can jot anything down, and of course I also have to dodge my husband’s frequent attempts at memory scrambling when he inevitably asks me where his phone/keys/wallet/spanner/glasses are (you would understand my lack of inspirational/inspired posts if you realised how often in a day this occurs, it really is nothing short of a miracle that I post anything at all – just now I had to break off to help him decide whether to paint the new wooden drain cover first or the new wooden garden edging! Honestly). Before I can get my fingers to a keyboard, the ideas are tumbling over themselves, the proof-reading has already begun and I want to shut myself in a darkened room to reassemble my brain cells.
(I was going to caption this ‘Man with a Plan’ – he was making a drain cover – but my wit of a son came up with ‘Man with a Plank’ when I put it on Instagram!)
The result of his afternoon’s work (just don’t tell him it’s not straight!)
Today, while cleansing body and mind, it came to me. That elusive next anecdotal post. So now the pressure’s on to get it done and dusted before I take my leave for rest and recreation next week. I won’t give it a big build-up in case it’s rubbish, I’ll just slip it in between the recipes and hope it passes muster. Don’t be afraid to comment, I’ll already be lying down, I can take it, just be gentle, my back hurts.
(I’m going back to finish the Mango Chia Pudding now).
Links to the posts mentioned earlier:
You Were So Much More Than Your Job: A Tribute to My Dad For Father’s Day
My Dad Walked Straight and Tall Like A Soldier
Hand in Hand: A Poem for Father’s Day
Inspiring Women: An Expression of Gratitude
Mother’s Day: A Tribute to My Children
Ode To Our Piano, a Faithful and Long-Suffering Friend
Copyright: Chris McGowan
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
Rest up and the stories will flow. Now I’ve also got a chia pudding waiting in the fridge and I know it’s all mine because Woody reckons it looks like fish eggs.
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Haha! I told my son it looked and tasted like frog spawn the first time he made me taste it – not that I’ve ever tasted frog spawn! But I had it on its own in water with just a squeeze of lime, it was awful. He thinks it’s refreshing! Horses for courses…
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Well you can keep the lemon version!
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Jumped over from the Senior Salon
~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m HUGE on linking, both to posts of others *and* related content on my own blog – which only makes too much sense for an Evergreen blog. But Blogging-101 wasn’t around when I began, so I had no idea it was suggested as important.
Husbands! Roseanne Barr (when she still did stand-up) often complained about being used as her hubby’s short-term memory. “Roseanne,” she whined, “Where are the Cheetos?” After a beat she retorted, “Like he can’t lift up the couch cushions and look for himself!” 🙂
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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I remember, I loved her programme! 😄
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Me too. Since I began participating weekly I have connected – on my blog and theirs – with so many interesting bloggers whom I would otherwise never have met.
The format makes it easy for me to keep track of which ones I’ve visited. I do my best to dedicate time to get around to every single one before each week is out. Lately I’ve been batting a thousand!
xx,
mgh
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Wow, you’re really busy! I try my best but I can’t manage everyone all the time. I try to pop in and out with a comment as much as I’m able but I do miss important posts occasionally and have to go back.
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We ALL can only work with the time we are able to dedicate to the task. And yes, I am extremely busy. My goal is to get expertise gleaned from 25+ years in the field out to as many people who are needlessly struggling as possible, especially those who can’t afford to hire professional help.
So even though blogging doesn’t keep food on my table or a roof over my head, I do prioritize it, along with research to keep up with my field (sadly, ALL “unbillable” and *extremely* time-consuming — I have always lived frugally to be able to do so).
And then, of course, I have to put my posts together & often have to work around the “improvements” and glitches of the WordPress Gremlins to get them up. ::groan::
MANY days and almost all extremely late nights, I want to walk away and join the ranks of the Walmart greeters. 🙂
Just about that time I read a comment under something I’ve posted that gives me a gust of wind beneath exhausted wings, and I thank GOD for engagement, taking the time to make another trip around the blogs to share the feel-good.
xx,
mgh
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I’m sure many people have benefited from your insights, but remember to take care of yourself too 🙂
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Yep – that’s the trick, isn’t it? ::sigh::
xx, mgh
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Very nice piece, Chris! I really do enjoy it when you get a bit more personal, peeling back the organic onion, so to speak. You have a conversational style that is very pleasant to read, and you are quite creative even though you may not give yourself enough credit. Speaking of, I’m now off to investigate the links you provided, as some of them don’t ring a bell and I may have a few treasures to discover or re-discover. (Oh, and thanks for the shout-out!)
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You are being very kind to me, thank you 😊
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I just wanted to say that firstly, take as many breaks as you need and don’t apologise, because this blogging lark is supposed to be fun, not an ordeal! Secondly….you might think you are rehashing what others have written, but what you don’t realise is that nobody writes it like you do. No-one else has your voice, words, or the way you photograph things. So….its unique and fresh. Yeah it might be about organic green noodles plucked during the first sunrise of the month, and everyone else did that to death, but….I would always read yours first and comment. (Because who doesn’t love sunrise noodles? And yes I totally made that up – so if you ever discover them, remember your friends!) Sending gentle back-safe hugs. 😀
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Oh Claire, you’re so sweet, thank you for this, and you made me laugh so much I had to explain to hb.
Re rehashing, I meant more that because I felt like I was repeating information I had written in a previous post or including more and more links to previous posts for new readers and that maybe older readers might get bored.
💜
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Oh ok, yes I understand now…BUT!! Remember back in the days of Blogging 101, where they said linking to previous posts was practically the most important thing you could do to keep readers informed and staying on your site? (She says, having never done this in her entire blog-life *ahem*). New readers need to know you have this stuff in your archives so they won’t go off elsewhere to find it, and older readers need to be reminded of things they may have forgotten……(she says, looking innocently at the ceiling). I also know its probably quite difficult for you to keep track of everything. Maybe you could write it down. In book form….! *runs away* 😀
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😂 Re links, yes that’s why I’ve always done it, to show people where they can find further information.
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