Paradigm shift: how blogging changed my life

It’s probably not much of a surprise to you that I love this blog.  I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts, photography, and creative projects here for almost two years.  (Wow… this is my 408th post!)

It’s funny how it happened.  When I was first urged to start a blog in my Momoir Project class on publishing and writing (see “A sisterhood of writers“), I strongly resisted.  Yet almost as soon as I published my first “hello world” post, I also started taking online classes and building a community of friends.  Umteen classes later, I have made such dear friends and found an amazing sense of community.  They are not at all “virtual,” as we communicate often through our blogs and comment sections, our Facebook and Flickr groups, via e-mail, and in class forums.  We encourage, lift up, and inspire each other every single day (see also “Heart to heart: thank you to each one of you“).

So, when Art McCracken (of My Crazy Life, a brand new monthly workshop) asked us to think of a time in our lives or to try to identify a specific event that shifted our paradigm or point of view, I thought of blogging and this online community that I have become part of.  First I pondered creating something about motherhood because that is what led me to the writing class, which led to all of this.  I chose this topic instead because it’s more MINE than the whole “identity as a mom” thing.  Does that make sense? We were to create a before and after canvas on this topic.  First, the finished product:

Step one: gather supplies.  This may be my favorite part because I love handling and looking at my craft goodies.  When everything I think I may want is laid out on the desk around me, I am positively giddy.  (And I try to be very neat when I work, putting things away and cleaning brushes as I go, so I am almost just as giddy when it’s all cleaned up.)

Step two: get rid of the white.  I chose various shades of blue paint to represent my life before blogging (a sort of purity and isolation), green for a new beginning, and purple because it’s my favorite color and evokes a sense of passion and purpose to me.  I also mixed them all a bit, adding some purples and greens to the left side and some blues to the right side.  The right side is a shimmer acrylic paint because I wanted that side to shine.  (I finished that half of the canvas with sparkle Mod Podge.)

Step three: add the middle section: the change.  This would be when I first began to understand that I could build a group of like-minded friends through online classes.  The girls in the Momoir classes were instant connections for me.  I gained so much in their responses to what I shared, giving me such a sense of validation.  Starting this blog is also part of the middle section.  The main idea here is that I made something happen to create positive change in my life.

The clock stamps are meant to be part of the change agent.  Of course when you look back at the order of events, it all seems to make sense, one thing leading to another.  Living it is a different story.  When I took my first online class and then created this blog, I did not know what friendships would come from it.  And now… wow.  It’s gone so quickly and yet those beginning posts seem to be ages ago.

Step four: the time before the change.  This was a very happy time, and yet it was solitary compared to how I feel now.  I had in-person friendships, my family, a fulfilling job, tons to read, then the birth of my daughter.  I used these chipboard flowers to represent those wonderful aspects of my life, and yet they are the same color as the background.  I used the modeling paste and some bubble wrap to try to show that there were parts of me below the surface wanting to emerge.

Step five: describing attributes of life with all these fabulous new friends.  Photography is obviously a huge part of it, so I included this camera button right after the clock stamp.  The very bottom right corner of the canvas has the YOU button as the center of a large circle, all rays emanating from it.  This sense that I can be authentically me and create art and blog posts and forge new friendships is the main point of this canvas.  And of course, it’s all about the real connections with fellow photography/art/blog/book/scrapbook lovers.

I was on a roll when making this that I didn’t want to wait for the ink or glue to dry so I used my heat gun to speed up the process.  The coffee cup stamp is a symbol of the true connections also… people I would love to actually sit down with and chat.  “The days are long, but the years are short” is a phrase that I’ve heard many many times since I became a parent.  It’s been brought home to me in different ways by different people, but it has really helped me to appreciate each “today” that I have with my sweet girl, however exasperating she can be at times.

The little birdie button is in homage to the Brave Girls Club and the Soul Restoration course I took.  Life-changing for sure.  I had to include “good stuff” because Kim Klassen says this often, as well as “s’gud.”

These short words and phrases are to be rays of sunshine; things friends may say to me or I to them.  There are other little pieces too: a sticker with a letter posted in Paris to represent the month of reading and posting about all things French; the flower button to represent falling in love with all things macro; small circles throughout in various patterns to echo that voice within that is finally singing her song.

So that’s it, friends.  A whirlwind of a canvas but really really fun.  Thank you to each of you for following along all this time.  I am truly grateful for each connection. 🙂