Blogging used to be the first thing I did each day. Putting words on the page, many of them as a way to ease my soul or work through whatever was spinning inside my head. Now, I still write for those reasons, but most of my words end up in a book or essay. That’s not a bad thing, but I often think about this blog and how I can give it more TLC.

Last summer, I tried to post once a week, and this summer, I still haven’t decided what I want to do. Do I want to set a blogging goal? Will doing so put too much pressure on me? Do I even have anything more to say? (The answer to that last question will always be YES.)

So I got to thinking about writing prompts and how I might use them, and today, I did a little digging. Lo and behold, I found out that June 30 is World Social Media Day. It’s been celebrated since 2010, though even this year—fourteen years after its inception—I didn’t know about it. That’s because social media, as I’ve said before, is not my favorite space. As an author, I feel like I need to use it, but when I do, my mental health begins to suffer. And by suffer, I mean that I feel bad about myself.

Let me tell you, friends, that I do not need anything else to make me feel bad about myself. For years I battled self-image issues. I’ve never been pretty enough, smart enough, talented enough, creative enough, tall enough, fast enough, and a plethora of other enoughs. I had to learn how to view life positively instead of negatively, as I was raised, and it took a long time to figure out how to forgo judging myself constantly. To this day, I haven’t learned how to fully accept myself as I am, and much of the time, social media doesn’t help. My books aren’t topping the bestseller lists, my career never fully took off, I don’t have a second home, and I rarely travel. We won’t be retiring early, and I may never see a kitchen larger than the one I currently have.

And guess what? I’m happy. I love my family, I’m grateful that I can work part-time to be there for my kids and dad and writing. We have what we need and more, and my life is full, so full.  Full of love, friends, family, joy, laughter, and contentment.

I might sound a little sappy, but who cares? This is my blog, right? And that’s a great segue back to my original thoughts about where to take this blog. The answer? Nowhere. Okay, not really. I think I’ll just let the topics arise organically, sort of like they used to. If I can post a few times a month, great! And if I have to rely a little on writing prompts . . . well that’s okay. Look where this one led me. Nothing earth-shattering here, but it’s never a bad time to reflect on life and think about gratitude.

Speaking of which, thank you for being here.

Image of phone by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.