Falling out of love with your blog

This is the part of blogging that I knew was coming. It was unavoidable, like that first cold I get every spring when the seasons change. Its the phase where you look at all the work you've done, all the posts you've written, the various design iterations and the ten different headers you've created and you still don't know why you're doing it. It took me days to find the perfect bubbly water graphic for my header and an hour to figure out what color to make my Twitter feed font. I lovingly picked the perfect combination of tropical blues and revised my bio a gazillion times. You know, the one that lies about how effortless my overachieving achievements have been.

Now I hate it all. I have fallen out of love with the narrow columns and pink borders. And bubbles?! What was I thinking?! No one will read this crap and I should just delete the whole thing. As soon as they see I used the tiny LinkedIn icon (instead of the big one) and quote Marianne Williamson, they'll be gone. Then this little voice inside me says "please wait". "You love this blog" whispers the tiny voice in my head. (BTW, my tiny voice sounds just like Dakota Fanning). She calms me down and reminds me I'm probably just having a bad day. OK, I'm listening.

Turns out, the real reason I hate my blog is because I've been AWOL for several months and the stupid thing got ignored. Part of why I loved it back then was because we had a relationship. I nurtured it and it rewarded me with a sense of expression and creativity. What did I expect? That it would keep churning out readers and comments while I stepped away and played with my other friends? It doesn't work like that. I am the CEO, Mom and best friend to my blog and I'm happy to be back. I promise not to go away for too long. I wouldn't want that. Have you heard Dakota Fanning scream?

Electing women into power

I have been re-reading Marianne Williamson's book, "A Woman's Worth", and came across this paragraph that seems incredibly appropriate right now, even though she wrote it fifteen years ago.  For all women who are both excited and disturbed about the females in this year's election and who are sorting out their feelings and loyalties, keep this in mind:  

"Electing women to positions of political power does not in itself guarantee the expression of a feminine voice in the external world.  Once in power, women can sometimes be tempted to conspire with the paternalistic system that they feel has so magnanimously allowed them a place at the table.  They feel compelled to be strong men among strong men.  Only when women go into the world to express an authentic balance of intelligence with compassion, representing not only women but the effort within all human beings to retrieve our lost hearts, will there be genuine liberation..."

        Marianne Williamson, 1993

 

Just getting into office is not the goal and does more harm than good if a woman does not get the support needed to stay true to all the qualities (both feminine and masculine) that inspired people to elect her.   If a woman who can do that were to appear on the political landscape, I pray our country has the awareness to recognize who she is and the leadership value she offers the world.