‘B’ for Blog. ‘B’ for Be.

A clog is a type of footwear. Clogs are quite ugly, to start with. And for the longest time ever, I thought a ‘blog’ was an extremely ugly type of clog.

Anyway, I was wrong.

For the odd person who still doesn’t know, the word blog is really the contraction of the words ‘web log’. “Blogs were created to function as discussion or informational sites published on the World Wide Web.  Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries; others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company” (Wikipedia).

Some blogs are commercial and some blogs are merely for personal satisfaction. Blogs have evolved into a  platform of expression and freedom. They serve to unite groups of people with similar interests, likes, dislikes and even problems. Example : A blog about Guitar Amplifiers – related discussions, advice and suggestions often follow the main post.

It wasn’t until recently that it dawned on me to start my own blog. My family and closest friends have always appreciated my way with words but I’d never really put any effort into reaching a wider audience. I guess it made me nervous. However, lying in a hospital bed for weeks, while my own life and my baby’s hung in a balance, made me take stock of everything I am, everything I have and everything I haven’t necessarily valued. Losing my little girl  Danielle, at the end of it all, made me wake up and realize that life is so short and so uncertain . It’s best to do the things we love while we still can.

My mind has always worked overtime – right from my earliest memory. I don’t just observe a situation or exist within a situation, I constantly analyse and dramatize the very unfolding itself. I draw parallels, I search for hidden lessons, I try to decode what God is saying,  I conjure up analogies, I explore the deeper emotions at play, I search for humour, I wonder how others perceive these things and  I sometimes imagine what the soundtrack to a situation would be like. My mind is quite a busy place. However, I assure you, I am not crazy. I’m just a regular person with a very sensitive side.  And often, I like to write about the wonderings, the situations and people that have impacted me – songs, poems and random articles.

As a young, primary school student, this natural tendency to write prompted me to maintain a journal. I abandoned this practice as time rolled on, thanks to my mother’s colourful imagination – she is a Professor of Literature. Mamma would always conjure up the worst case scenario as far as my safety was concerned. She still does. I am, after all, her only child. Every newspaper warning/crime report/ scandal, the dangerous plots described in movies and books, it seems, were directly addressed to mamma. This was in order for her to understand the workings of a criminal mind and thereby, keep me safe. Bearing this in mind, mamma told me that keeping a journal was unsafe as it would be disastrous if it ever fell  into the wrong hands. ‘People’ could misuse the insight into my life, emotions and personal confessions to my ‘dear diary’. At the time, I didn’t know how I was going to turn out, though I believed good. Anyway, I decided to listen to mamma and lose the journal simply because, ‘Mamma knows best!’.

Over a decade later, here I am, just a regular person with no deep, dark secrets or scandals lurking in my closet. I’m just as human and social/anti-social as you. Having a slightly eccentric artistic side is probably my only irregularity. I feel confident to write and express myself openly without the fear of someone chasing me down with my own words. I am also comfortable sharing from my own life. Here’s something I learned off mamma – ‘Those that love you, will understand. Those that don’t love you, what they believe doesn’t matter anyway’. I am at ease with myself.

This brings me back to the blog. How happy am I that people like me don’t need a publishing house to share our writings?! Overjoyed. ‘B’ for ‘Blog’. ‘B’ for ‘Be’. A place where I can quite simply – Be. Be who I am, feel what I feel, say what I think, share what matters to me and allow the writer-in-me a tiny space to breathe.

The purpose of my blog is, simply, to share my thoughts, my heart and stray pieces of my life with you. I have no desire to attack you, contradict you,  mock you, question you or impress my views on you.  Would I like to change the world for the better? Surely. But without forgetting that God loves all of us equally and that it’s best to maintain a sense of humour at all times. There are far too many people who ‘seriously’ set out to change the world and in this endeavour, actually contribute to the world’s biggest problem today – stress. This blog will serve as my platform of expression and (hopefully) your five minutes of relaxed reading. You might find the spectrum of my writings to be wide and unpredictable. And though I have already written my disclaimer, I might, unintentionally, rub someone the wrong way. In such an unfortunate circumstance, please accept my apologies. I assure you, it will have been in good sport.

As you read my blog, I hope you will wonder with me. I hope you will ponder with me. I hope you will laugh. I also hope you will cry – tears are, after all, the most profound expression of human emotion. I hope you will be engaged. I hope you will forget the pressures of your world. I hope you will be refreshed. I hope you will have opinions (and maybe, start your own blog to voice them!). And above all, I hope that, through the good, the bad, the funny, the sad, the inspiring and even the ridiculous, in my own small way,  I will influence a positive change.

So here we go, ‘B’ for ‘Blog’. ‘B’ for ‘Be’. ‘B’ for ‘Beginning’. Here’s hoping that you will toast, with me, to my tiny new beginning. Cheers!