https://youtu.be/AGUsRGuZb6k?t=37s
It was one of my grandmother’s sayings. She’d say it when I lay crumpled, blowing on my bloody, skinned, stinging knees after a fall.
“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.”
I didn’t know that her homespun wisdom came from the lyrics to a 1930s’ film, Swing Time. This morning, I googled the saying and found a clip. So for your enjoyment, here’s Ginger Rogers encouraging Fred Astaire to try again.
And here I am, again, posting a blog after more than a month. My last post was March 20, five days before I left for the UK. My sister and I spent 9 days sightseeing and exploring family history. I had a post in mind when I returned, but postponed it because it involved Harriet Beecher Stowe’s writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and I haven’t read the book, yet. Afterwards, I got busy with other things. Time passed and now we’re in last week of April.
I’ve read that most bloggers abandon their blog within the first year. I don’t plan to be another statistic. I reduced my optimum frequency goal of posting twice a week to a reasonable and realistic goal of twice a month, I don’t have a huge following. I chuckle at “huge” because I don’t know if I ever will. That’s not what drives me.
One of my goals in blogging is consistency. Being consistent will chip away at the fear of writing publically. The more I do it, the less intimidating the process will be. Here’s my six month plan: from May to October, I’ll write two posts each month. After October, I may increase frequency to four a month. If I’m ready.
Beyond consistency is meeting my own expectations for developing a blog that helps to meet the needs of people who want encouragement to live free despite their fears. That might be you.
We, bloggers, are like fishermen (women) casting our lines into a virtual sea filled with viewers with various needs. When we share our blogs across the network of social media, we hope to attract followers.
My hope is to attract readers who want to explore fear and its impact on their lives and what it takes to live free.
The fear of failing at blogging will be with me a long time. And, every time I lose momentum or miss my monthly quota, I will hear its terrible voice announce that I am another one of its casualties.
But Ginger, Fred and my grandmother are on the sidelines telling me to pick myself up … and start all over again.
Other words encourage me, too. They come from Micah, an Old Testament prophet. They are part of an anthem that builds my courage to start again after I have fallen or failed. I hope they encourage you.
“Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy, though I fall I will rise: Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.”
awomanfreedforlife 