A secondhand introduction

~ Tara R.

fractured selfie

Sometime around mid-December, this space, Thin spiral notebook, turned five – that’s, what, 35 in bloggy years? Prior to that, I had another site, more of a memoir-slash-mommy-blogger kind of thing for another three years.

When I opened this notebook, I wanted it to be a place where I could just be me. Where I could write and display some of my photographs. It was meant to be exactly what the tagline says: “My journal of big words and pretty pictures”.

I still occasionally mention my kids (both 20-something adults now), or complain about/praise my husband of 30 years, but mainly I write what the voices in my head tell me to write and go where they tell me to go to capture images to illustrate my stories.

Over the past year, I’ve gotten a little lazy, a little haphazard about both my writing and photography. I think I’ve lost misplaced my intention.

In an effort to follow where I feel led, I’m participating in WordPress’ Commons 101, a month-long course designed to help bloggers “advance their blogging goals.”

The first task was to introduce myself and describe why I am here. After five years, you’d think I’d have that covered, but who knows. Maybe I’ve never actually mapped that out, so I don’t know how to get the most out of my writing, my craft.

I was never good at homework, so please bear with me. Instead of writing something new (especially when I detest dislike bios and selfies), I’ll let what I’ve said and done before to show who I am.

That said, these few posts pull the curtain back to “who” I am:

Self Expression 
An encounter in frozen foods
She’s a freak
Straddling the Mason/Dixon line

These other posts, express what photography means to me:

Gone, but not forgotten
Middle of nowhere
Alone is not always lonely
Storm prep

Then, these posts, give some insight into why I feel compelled to write:

Non compos mentis
Backstories and foreshadows
We are family
All I really need to know I learned at JinJins

Blogging U.

11 thoughts on “A secondhand introduction”

  1. I really love your writing Tara. And the way you put your fictional characters together and on the page tells us so much about you. Even when you don’t like one of them you care. Keep up the good work please.

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  2. Great post. It is nice to have some context behind your posts and see the woman behind the curtain. The thing to remember about blogs are there are no rules. Only the ones we artificially put upon ourselves.

    “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
    Love like you’ll never be hurt,
    Sing like there’s nobody listening,
    And live like it’s heaven on earth.”

    ― William W. Purkey

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  3. I love your writing – and I love how you follow directions but ummm maybe not exactly as instructed. That alone says a lot about you, right? 😉 Here’s hoping you find your mojo again completely, cuz it’s pretty awesome!

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