“Start a blog” is on my MONDO BEYONDO list.
One of my friends wrote me over the weekend, suggesting I cross this creation off the list and feel happy that I’ve accomplished something here—on the road to making my dreams come true. I agreed in my return email, but feel that I need to clarify “Start a blog” for all of you. My wish or goal with starting a blog is a bit more loaded than just starting.
Let me begin with a little back-story…
There are several blogs that I read on a regular basis (Superhero Journal, Jen Lemon, What Kate Did Next, tam.me, Orangette, and Ali Edwards)
But there is ONE in particular that I LOVE: Planting Dandelions.
Formerly known as “Notes to Self.” I found this blog about five years ago, evidently when the writer, Kyran Pittman, had just gotten it off the ground. From her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, Kyran wrote about her daily thoughts on marriage, children, financial insecurity, family, writing, laundry—you name it. If it was on her mind, she wrote it down eloquently and with humor and optimism. I was in the same boat with marriage, children, and laundry. I read her experiences with a nod of the head as if they were my own because quite honestly I was living almost the same life behind another computer. It felt reassuring.
I was especially tickled when Kyran got picked up by Good Housekeeping magazine. In her first assignment, she wrote a feature about how realistic (or NOT!) it is to wear expensive, designer clothes when you are a mom in a little town on a shoestring budget. GH flew Kyran to New York where she was fitted with a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes, a Burberry raincoat, a pair of Prada pants, and a big ass Louis Vuitton bag. At home in Little Rock, she test drove the couture and wrote a charming article about her experience with it. I got such a kick out of her perspective and her writing that I bought 12 copies of the magazine and distributed them to my friends, telling all of them the story of finding her on-line and then seeing her in the pages of a magazine that I love, writing about something I could totally relate to.
I was in grad school at the time and struggling with my creative voice. And although I was writing every day, Kyran was living the writing life I wanted. Exhausted by my memoir project in class, feeling too spent to let my hair down on a blog, I often times let Kyran’s writing speak for me by sending HER posts to friends and family with emails that just said, “DITTO!”
At one point, I got the chance to meet Kyran at a blogging conference in Houston (February 2009) where she talked about scoring a regular spot with Good Housekeeping AND landing a book deal(Planting Dandelions). She was just as nice in person as she is on the screen.
I thought meeting her might turn me into a "fan" but I have to admit that I don’t read her as often as I used to. And eventhough I have her book, I’ve put it at the bottom of my pile.
I decided to out myself on this one. I have to admit that I am fighting a bit of jealousy. Pure and simple. It has been difficult for me to look at Kyran’s journey over the last five years, to see her successful results, and not think, “why didn’t I do that?”
It is also on my MONDO BEYONDO list to write a book. But more than being on the list, that dream is part of my soul. That desire invades my dreams, wakes me up at night, waits for me at times when I have nothing to do or when I’m exceedingly busy. No matter the day, time, or circumstance, I want to express myself in words, tell my stories, more than I allow myself that opportunity. It’s hard to face someone like Kyran who put the excuses aside and found the time and the voice to make it happen.
In one of Kyran’s posts, shortly after the 2009 conference when all her news was hitting her blog, lots of readers wrote to her and asked for her “secret to success”—how did this happen to you and not to my friend or etc… people actually wrote things like that to her. I remember her response was that every person gets “there” (wherever that is) on their own time. She recalled stories of spending plenty of time camped out in Barnes and Noble feeling jealous and envious of authors and wondering if it would ever happen to her. Her advice? Be true to your voice. Make time for your craft every day. Believe in yourself. When you roll all those things together, something will surely happen.
I am trying to keep her words in mind this week when I have to choose between blogging and working on my memoir project and dinner or laundry or parenting stuff or even wifely duties.
Another thing I shouldn’t dismiss is this: When I “discovered” Kyran’s blog I was on my own path to completing my master’s degree and becoming a professor. It has been a HUGE accomplishment and a journey more than worthy of celebrating. It’s just that I’m not yet willing to mark off “Start a blog” from my MONDO BEYONDO list just because I’m here more regularly than I’ve ever been before. I feel as if there are greater things for me to discover here and maybe even a chance to merge my kids and my writing together.
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