Opal Reflections
Perspectives through Prose, Poetry and Photography
Zero to Hero: Day 1
Today, I embark on a 30-day journey to become a better blogger. Today’s assignment: write and publish a “who I am and why I’m here” post.
I began blogging in June 2012, a few months after having retired from the corporate world. Because of my unfamiliarity with (or perhaps fear of) the blogosphere, I submitted posts via email and attempted to build a blog with: Hello, World! I soon realized that I was about to unleash something that would need a rigorous and flexible delivery system. BCIJo was created and launched the blog in earnest with: Let’s Get this Blog Going. Last Fall, I renamed my blog Opal Reflections and designed a logo representative of my vision. This would be the repository of my observations and perspectives on life, expressed through poetry, prose and photography.
I have always enjoyed keeping a journal, particularly during times of stress, but more often than not, would pick up my handwritten journal and note that my earlier entry had been months earlier! Repeatedly, I would seek out a ‘new’ journal, one that I vowed would enable me to offer regular entries and updates; one with quality paper, perfect lines, an exquisite fountain pen, etc. I stare at my bookcase now and see years of those half-filled journals (all of them too beautiful and meaningful to discard). Responsibilities would usually take precedence over what I viewed as ‘spare time’ activity.
Aha – I think I may have hit on something here. Writing was and is as necessary as singing and photography. It is a portal through which I can express who I am, in so doing; provide context and clarity to my experiences and views. And yet, I always viewed it as ‘wasting time’ and needing to steal alone time, to write.
Now that I am retired from the working world and my days are filled with discretionary activities, I see the fallacy of that earlier thinking. The blogosphere provides an available medium for my meanderings, and whether I am entering a writing challenge, responding to photo prompts, or gathering recollections of my experiences, I write nearly every day; taking advantage of easy access to templates that enable even the most inexperience blogger to create a unique space.
I view this 30-day adventure as a way to reexamine and perhaps restructure the world I reluctantly embraced 20 months ago; to take a step back to objectively evaluate Opal Reflections. As I read those early blogs I recall my hesitance and excitement. In the days ahead I would like to reexamine those early goals with an eye towards refining my creative objectives for 2014.
One Comment on “Zero to Hero: Day 1”
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Lighthouse in the Mist, Cape May, NJ
Bandit
Festive View from the Pub, Peddler’s Village – Lahaska, PA.
Home Sweet Home
Opal Reflections 
I agree with you, I wish I had the savvy to know how to put a picture in etc, I am clueless, but am a learning in progress, thanks to you, I to have many half written journals, I love to write, as you do but you always do it better
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