Shower thinking

Sometimes, I do my best thinking in the shower.  And today, as the water ran over my face, I found myself having one of those showers in which, once I am brought back to the moment, I can't remember if I've shampooed or not.  And I can't figure out how much time has passed.  Today, I was thinking about my blog.

I am pretty sure that writing this last six months has changed me, and there are only a handful of things, or people, or events in my life that I can pin to that point.  I am not so sure that the change has been much in any outward way - those of you who know me best would be the ones to comment on that - but it definitely has been major in many inward ways.  I feel happier.  I feel more in the moment.  I feel more appreciative.  I feel more inspired, and more ambitious, and more confident, and more at peace.  I don't know what it is, really:  the act of writing?  the reflecting?  the place I happen to be in life?  the risk I take every time I hit "publish post"?  the comments that people give me?  the interacting in this way that is so foreign to me, really?

I was thinking about this in my time-warp shower today.  And I went on a lot of tangents in this train of thought.  In my very first blog post, I mentioned that I do not think that I will change the world, nor do I have ambitions to do so.  And that is still a very true statement.  But this morning, in a little blip of a thought, it occurred to me that it might be pretty cool if I could make some difference by writing, change the world in some small way.  I think I have a pretty good feel for this scale of world changing - it won't be much.  But, I thought, it could maybe (just maybe) be more than it currently is. 

I tend to be kind of schizophrenic about what I want with this blog.  Am I writing it for myself?  Am I writing it for some audience, real or imaginary?  Am I writing it for my kids?  I think that the answer to all of those questions is yes, but depending on my mood, and depending on the post.  Do I want to somehow garner a larger audience? Well, that would have its pros and cons of course...but I would love to have more people feel the way I am feeling these days.  Would a larger audience even be interested in this blog? I don't know that I should answer that.  I've realized that there is not a whole lot of cohesiveness to my blog: Sometimes, I write about my kids. Sometimes, about myself. Sometimes, about philosophical questions. Sometimes, about nothing at all. And my guess is that diversity may not be very appealing to the masses.  That's just a guess.

I am a subscriber to a blog for the book I mentioned before, Run Like A Mother, and I love reading the authors' posts and the many comments that people leave for them.  And what's more - I love leaving comments, too.  Because I feel like I belong to a community.  Everyone there has a common interest - running.   If I did want a larger audience, maybe I would need a common interest.  What would the common interest be for my blog?  After much thought, this is what I came up with:  For me, this blog is about recognizing, enjoying, appreciating, and finding happiness in the ordinary moments, and banking that happiness up for a day of adversity.  We all have ordinary moments.  Can we all find happiness in them?  Can this be a community in which to do that?  Look around you.  This is life.  It may be ordinary, it may be extraordinary, but this is it.  Why not love it?  Why not enjoy it?

And in this shower monologue, I wondered:  Do I really want to change what I am doing? No, I decided.  I like this.  But one thing that I like is that I have held myself to no particular topic, no niche so tiny that I can't incorporate a bigger element.  And then I thought of a phrase:  Give me a moment.

Give me a moment.  This phrase got me thinking about a bigger picture.  What if every now and then, there was a post - or maybe an entirely new blog - called "Give me a moment"?  And in that post/blog, as a happiness-seeking community, we gave each other the moments that made us smile, or think, or whatever was the topic for the day.  And we could be a part of it for each other.  And in reading others' moments, we might be lifted up a bit.  And we can all benefit from slowing down and being in our own moments, and investing ourselves in positive thoughts.

So this is an experiment, and I am putting myself out there with this.  But in the book I just finished (The Happiness Project), Gretchen Rubin resolves to "Enjoy the fun of failure."  So, here goes nothing:  Will you be willing to participate in this?  It means that you would have to share (anonymously if you would like) by writing a comment on the blog (not on Facebook) AND post the "Give me a moment" link to attempt to get others to contribute, too.  But maybe we can start something here, and it can be a positive for all of us.

Your comment can be a brief sentence, or a few words, or a paragraph.  I am not going start with this post...this is just to see if anyone would be willing to participate.  Because if no one wants to, then I won't force the issue.  I am new to this blogging thing, and don't have a clue how to get a bigger audience except to appeal to you, my friends.  Often I think it is easier to comment on or support compete strangers posts than it is people you know, but this is my starting point.  If there is any interest, I may put these "Give me a moment" posts in a different blog.  In any case, this is something that I would like to try, so for today, will you just give me a yes or no?  You can comment anonymously if you don't want me to know who you are!!  Thanks for humoring me.   :)