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I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below. |
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  . -- I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020. Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it. I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful. |
| I've pursued several unrelated interests over the four decades of my adult life that have endured for more than three months. Of these, very few have lasted more than six months, and apart from developing my spiritual life, none have lasted beyond a year. I've returned to a few of them once or twice after a period of several years. I practiced some regularly for a few months then dropped them again and others I played around with more sporadically. In no particular order and aside from writing, I've pursued these interests for a period of three to six months:  using a program to transcribe books into Braille learning about Linux so I could ditch Windows weight loss, nutrition and fitness so I could drop 30 pounds knitting and crocheting squares to be made into blankets for charity learning to play piano with chords and rhythm patterns so I could compose worship songs collecting and sharing spiritual quotes on social media studying apologetics, logic, and algebraI'd still like to learn Latin, advanced music theory, and how to create Android or iOS apps. Are you wondering yet if I have ADD? Even after three months of isolation due to the pandemic, boredom’s not been an issue. I love classics, fantasy, and historical romance novels. The only way I find time for them is to listen to audiobooks while doing housework or working out on the treadmill. My favourite definition of a passion is something you're willing to suffer for. It's something for which you're willing to give up other enjoyable activities in order to make time to do it. It's more than a "strong interest" because even a strong interest dies when shot with obstacles and challenges. A passion isn't necessarily a single activity, nor is it a goal. It's rooted in your soul, a value, or maybe several related values. I've identified the "mission statement" for my life: to become all that God designed me to be and to reflect His truth, beauty and goodness in every area of my life. Flowing from this, my core values are: pursuing physical, emotional and mental wellness maintaining internal balance and focus using my gifts to provide something of value to othersWe don’t just pour our efforts into our heart’s desire, but we also can learn to feel passionate about that which we put effort toward. --Sanam Hafeez, Psy.D THE SECRET TO DEVELOPING PASSIONS (RATHER THAN SEARCHING FOR THEM, LIKE NEEDLES IN A HAYSTACK) If this is true, I'll never develop a passion because I have so many interests and they're like reflecting sunlight on a brook - bright, beautiful and entirely unstable. I don't need to discover my passion; there's abundant advice on how to do that. Rather, I need to settle on one interest or combine a few and develop a passion from these. How do I decide which of these to focus on when any one I choose means I have to sacrifice at least one or two others that I'm equally interested in? I have more time than most people since I'm retired and have few other commitments, especially with the pandemic eliminating our social lives. Still, there are a limited number of daily hours available to pursue any of these and I already go to bed long after midnight. No matter which direction I take, there'll come a time when it gets difficult. I've never been great at persevering through this stage, either from laziness or a lack of self-confidence. If failure is defined as giving up, I've had a lot of failures. I've had two successes at weight loss and both of these were because I wanted it badly enough. As fascinating as I find any of these activities, I don't know if my interest is as powerful and as compelling as my desire was to lose weight. I've reviewed at least 10 articles about "discovering your passion" and several of them offered a list of questions to help you figure this out. If this were a puzzle to be solved or a treasure map to follow, here's where I'd look for clues: 1. What's the most expensive item on your wish list? Or which category describes the majority of items on this list? 2. What "unnecessary" thing do you regularly spend money on? 3. What books are on your shelf or e-reader or audiobook account? 4. Which podcasts do you subscribe to? 5. What sites are in your bookmarks? Or what categories of articles are in your Instapaper, or in your Pocket account? 6. During your workday, what do you most look forward to doing when you leave? 7. What will you stay up past your bedtime to do? 8. What do you yearn to do when you get enough time (when the kids are grown and gone or when you've retired)? 9. What do you never want to do, if you have a choice about it? (Example: sell stuff, speak publicly, or do anything on a computer) 10. What do you most often procrastinate doing other than preparing taxes and visiting the dentist? If it's true that your passion will always "come back to you", then writing could be it for me, or at least in part. This is the third time in my life where I've devoted six months or more of consistent effort to writing. There are other things that I've come back to but nothing I've persevered with for more than a few weeks. At the time I'm writing this, I've maintained my focus on writing for 10 months. I've posted more than 50 articles on my Writing.com blog and about 12 on my WordPress blog. I'm still posting to each of these weekly. Since I'm also considering creating a third one that will focus on Catholic spirituality and apologetics. maybe I won't turn aside from writing to something that seems more interesting. Writing will remain my strongest focus for the foreseeable future. It will never be my only focus – and it doesn’t need to be. Reflection: When you suddenly have a lot of free time, are you excited or bored?Do you have a hobby that is your main focus or do you struggle to balance several competing interests?If you feel pressured to “find your passion”, how do you deal with it? |
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Yes, I know some people do that but I'm a creative writer not a journalist. Poetry sells ... but it's a money-maker for only a few. I write A LOT. Almost 180 pieces since Spring equinox. My goal is 300-400 per year. One year I went over 1,000. I need to do more editing, polishing, sharing, submitting. Writer's block? Who has time for that? I don't.