Why I blog

I really like Anna Quindlen. The truth is, I do not always agree with her. I am more conservative morally and politically than Anna--so I always filter what I read from her through my own Christian worldview...but she is so spot on in her ability to articulate the things I am often feeling, that I cannot ignore her.

My mother-in-law sent me a terrific essay Anna wrote about parenting. I have spent far too much time on google trying to find the source of the essay so I could link to it. So far, I have only found it reproduced on blogs, but here is a quote that really resonated with me.

"The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less." (Anna Quindlen)

As I was searching for the source article, I came across this archived article of hers from Newsweek. Telling the story of the high school teacher that the Freedom Writers book and movie were based upon, Anna writes,
"In the age of the telephone most communication became evanescent, gone into thin air no matter how important or heartfelt. Think of all those people inside the World Trade Center saying goodbye by phone. If only, in the blizzard of paper that followed the collapse of the buildings, a letter had fallen from the sky for every family member and friend, something to hold on to, something to read and reread. Something real. Words on paper confer a kind of immortality. Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn't all of us leave a bit of that behind?"

And so for those who ask me why I stare at this laptop daily and attempt to capture shreds of the laughter, tears, frustration, chaos, growth and LIFE taking place...It is not so much about immortality for me, but rather about an ongoing narrative that makes me slow down and reflect at the end of the day. It is not enough to just seize the days, I want to savor them as well. (and since I have not recorded one single thing in a traditional baby book, it serves that purpose, too.)
Seize it and savor it!