Grand Reopening

Before the posts begin, I thought I’d send out a hello to anyone still following me. I thought it only fair to let you know my blog will be more active this year and to give you a chance to decide whether to follow or unfollow me.

The blog will differ from its past iteration. Sure, I will still ramble about a wide variety of things. I’m not a niche blogger. Though, I think the new incarnation of this blog will be slightly more niche-y. I think it is important in this moment to spend some of my time sharing my experiences with a variety of mental health issues. There is still a great deal of stigma attached to mental health issues and it is only by sharing stories and experiences that we can begin to chip away at the stigma.

There will also be posts that may seem like I’m writing in a diary and you may wonder why I’m writing these private diary-like entries. Because I need to work through some things.

“Well, why not work through them privately?”

Maybe I’ll have a good answer to that at some point. For now, it seems important.

Perhaps it’s a way of sharing thoughts with people I know. As I’ve learned more about my mental health issues, I started to understand my past actions and behaviors. Maybe I need others who know me to understand too.

Sometimes putting thoughts out into the world, a comment from a random stranger comes along and helps the puzzle take shape. (This is a lesson I’ve learned in all my time blogging, from my LiveJournal blog in the early 2000s, to my various WordPress incarnations. When writing about the struggles of caring for my mom in the final years of her life, several people I knew only through blogging offered comments and advice that made a difference to my thought process and leaving comments that let me know I wasn’t alone, that they too were dealing with a similar situation.) Advise from friends and family sometimes feels suspect: are they saying something because they think it’s what I want to hear? And, maybe, my ramblings might be relatable to one or two of you. I have learned that knowing there are others who are struggling with the same thoughts is reassuring. Feeling like no one else is thinking the same things is rather a lonely place. 

I should also say I’ve learned that comments aren’t always a necessary thing. Telling me that “I was reading this and realized I didn’t really care” is not especially helpful. If you find yourself not caring about the content of a post, please feel free to navigate your way to another webpage where you might find the content more interesting. You leaving without leaving a comment won’t hurt my feelings. That’s not to say I don’t welcome a differing opinion. Different points of view, even if it is something I strongly disagree with, is not the same thing as being insulting. Different views are welcomed. Insults are not.

Other things that will appear on this blog: music videos (I love music, I love sharing it – again, feel free to press the stop button if you hate the tune); maybe some vlog posts; poetry; my photography; thoughts about books I’ve read; and anything else that happens to catch my interest.

Those of you who’ve followed me in the past may remember that I use a specific title format for my posts. For example, when I’ve written about my dealings with depression, the post title would be “Depression Demons: _______.”  When I wrote about things about my mom, the titles of the posts would be “The Mom Stories: _______.” It’s a convention I’ll keep. Having the title tell you the post is about depression will help you decide whether or not you want to read it – maybe you’re having your own bad day and don’t feel like reading something that might not be uplifting. With all the things there are to read, having a heads up at the beginning helps you plan your reading. I’m not blogging to have thousands of people read my posts.

This is for me.

If my words reach a few people, maybe help a person or two, that’s fine with me. 

(P.S. The website design is new. I had to “hide” many of my old posts because they were formatted for a different template design. Apologies if you see any funny formatting while I get used to the new design and layout.)