QotD: I <3 Blogging

It's obvious that here at Vox we love blogging and with Valentine's Day fast approaching, we want to know: why do you love blogging? It can be a list of what you love, a story connected to your blog, a person you met through blogging, an opportunity that came your way... anything! Just share the love!

Just celebrating the fact that this isn't a schmoopy Valentine's Day qotd:

I love blogging, because I love writing.  I was just thinking about it this morning as I recalled a conversation that I had with my husband's family around the dinner table on a recent visit.  I have another blog that they love to follow.  "I don't know how you come up with what you write," my father-in-law said.  My sister-in-law, in response, said, "Just the idea of sitting down and writing makes my palms sweat... I don't know what I'd write about."  Last night, my husband was encouraging me, again, to think about writing a book, an idea I've toyed with but have usually put away because of feelings that I'd spend a lot of time writing something inane and uninteresting.  On that topic, he said, "You know what I'd do to get started?  I'd take my favorite album, like Ten, and I'd write a short story about each song.  Maybe tying them together, maybe not."  I looked at him, smiled, and said, "Getting an initial idea isn't the problem.  I have tons of ideas."

It hit me today that writing is an entirely different experience for me.  I have to write to organize the thoughts and ideas floating in my brain, just so that I can stop thinking about them and get back to life as usual.  Never have I thought, "I want to write something.  Now..... whaaaaaaat should I write about?  Hmmmmmmm."  It's always the opposite.  My train of thought gets so far off track, that I finally submit to it by opening Vox, my other blog, a new Word document, my moleskine that I carry around, whatever is at arm's reach, and I write it out.  Once I have it on paper, I feel relaxed again and can go back to thinking about what I should be thinking about.

So, Vox, I love blogging, because I would've been writing anyway.  Now I get to share my thoughts with someone else, without otherwise publishing myself, and that is pretty satisfying. 

It's the "blue" in me: in seeking to understand; I seek to be understood.