The other day Rose commented, “The curve around the corner with the writing is a joy Heather, I'm loving the ride.” A few others have noticed a shift as well, even suggesting my recent posts were “Hewittish.” After recovering from how uncomfortable I felt with the comparison, I appreciated the sentiment (even if I cannot agree). Your generosity has me thinking though, maybe I should post some homemade music videos with the hope someone will say I remind them of the most precious impromptu musical performance ever to have graced the internet. (Please?)
The truth is, the writing I’ve shared in recent weeks is the type of writing I’ve always done, but typically file away on my hard drive. For nearly a decade I’ve been hitting publish on this blog and in doing so, I’ve censored the hell out of myself more than I care to acknowledge. This was not so much for my own sake, but for the people in my life who are far more upstanding than I, and who happen to lead fairly public professional lives. I’ve always been protective of that boundary, and I still am, but it’s time to reconsider exactly where those boundaries are best placed. Do you ever feel like you’re too old to be so careful all the time? Yeah, me too. To clarify, this is not a proclamation to say that I’ll be sharing all sorts of personal details from this point forward, not at all. There’s a lot of praise for bloggers who “keep it real,” as if sharing a positive story or photos of a gorgeous meal are less real. They’re not. And that’s not the type of writing shift I’m talking about. Who knows, in six months I might feel the need to write nothing but sewing tutorials… but for now, not so much.
I’m way overstimulated by life and the internet and changes and my god the presidential primary and fracking and starving refugee children and people denied access to bathroom use and one million other things too. Overload. Right now, I need so much less. I need less information and more wonderment, less Pinterest porn and more human experience, less thinking about “what should I write” and more sharing the stories and anecdotes that I already write, but never release. Less effort, more flow.
Who knows, maybe we all need these things.