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I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about this question: Why blog?

With an estimated 55 million blogs now on-line, it seems reasonable to ask why so many people are engaging in this activity. And, more importantly, why so many bloggers comment, facetiously or not, that they are “addicted” or “obsessed” with blogging, can’t live without it, and regularly confess that they are “spending way too much time blogging.” Many writers joke about their laundry piles, dusty furniture and dirty hair, and acknowledge eating fast food because they are too busy blogging to cook. Only those writers (and their families) know for sure, of course, how much truth is actually being divulged.

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This week’s theme: Soft “Mom, do you see the resemblance?” I had to snap this photo when Matthew grabbed Sophie and asked me that question. This kid comes home from…

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Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the incongruence between the amount of writing you want to do and the amount you are actually completing?

That’s how I’m feeling right now. I have several weeks’ worth of posts rolling around in the big empty cavern known as my brain. But I’m having trouble getting them out of my head and onto the computer screen.

Is it possible to suffer from “writer’s overload”?

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Those were the words I heard on the other end of the phone. The words that stunned me and left me speechless.

I know . . . hard to believe that I could be speechless. But I am still completely stymied when I think about it.

What I’d love to know is why.

Now that I have your attention . . . let’s talk about my love of music!

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Thirteen Philosophies by Which I Try to Live My Life

1. Life isn’t fair and nobody ever said it would be, especially my mother. But there is Karma . . . what goes around will definitely come around. Hearing later about how it played out is just icing on the cake.

2. Hating someone or holding a grudge has no impact on the person who wronged you, but eats away at your own soul, so fuhgetaboutit and move on to something healthy, positive, enjoyable, and fulfilling. (Besides, see #1).

3. Despite the tendency to believe that “it’s all about me,” it really isn’t. Remember that and watch your outlook improve.

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Yesterday we had a very enjoyable day. We “got out of Dodge” with our best friends, traveling to the Gold Country, the region of beautiful foothills where much of the great California Gold Rush played out.

Like us, our friends have two children. Their youngest daughter, a high school junior, was at home yesterday. When I casually asked, “What is she up to today?” we ended up having a great discussion about procrastination.

You see, my friends’ daughters take divergent approaches to writing projects. The oldest employs a very methodical approach, planning what she is going to write far ahead of time, creating an outline and, in the case of a large project with numerous components, gathering and organizing all of the information she needs before finally sitting down to start the process of writing. That process begins and is concluded well in advance of the project’s actual due date. She does not work well under the stress of a looming deadline.

The youngest daughter has a specific project coming due in several weeks, but no other deadlines bearing down on her at this time. Her older sister lent her advice and guidance about how to organize her work in order to finish by the due date, so my friends left her at home yesterday with instructions to spend the day completing her household chores and writing.

Given that I’ve known the girls their whole lives, I asked, “And how much writing do you think she will actually have done by the time you get home?”

The response? “None.”

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