I had put up of a few posts on WordPress the year before because I wanted to get the piece I wrote on Jennifer Knapp on the web outside my facebook account.  While working with friends on a gathering we hosted to discuss feminist sexual ethics, people kept saying we should collaborate on a blog.  Last year in late April, I had taken time off work to focus on my creativity.  I decided to move forward on my own, so sat and actually learned about WordPress (from a really nice youtube video by Abraham Harrison), shaped the blog, and set myself to posting regularly.

My main goals for the blog have been that it remain honest and vulnerable and non-violent and center on the theme of love.  I think I have grown towards all those things through posting.  I try to keep focus on a process versus product in creating things, not letting some weird false hope of popularity or money that comes as a knee-jerk response in our culture crowd out the real reasons why I write or make things.  What actually draws me to the things I love is the connections that are formed and the growth that is sparked – that very hard to describe warmth or life that comes from meeting with those things.  I’ve been hoping other people would find that here, and I think some have, which is wonderful!

At the party, I was also celebrating the one year anniversary of my beginning pottery lessons, and the recent completion of my first full draft of a novel.  I happened to have gotten my first new bicycle the day my blog post on learning to ride a bike came up, and I’d just done an advanced IMPACT course on defense against firearms along with Valerie.  Most of the closest friend were at the party and knew all those things.  My best friend Emily, and my good friend, Maggie (who somehow has not yet appeared on this blog, though I can’t think how) both gave me little, affirming gifts I’m now slightly obsessed with.  Everyone blew out a candle on a cupcake and made a creative wish for the next year.  And each person got a creative present, mostly pots I made which have finally transitioned to being objects you don’t have to be a close friend to love.

I have a hard time writing about creativity on this blog, even though I’ve tried several times.  So hopefully this year I will manage to get some things out. Valerie was looking at new pots and drafts on top my bookcase the other day and said, “You have so much art coming out of you!”  It’s a shock to here someone say that and find that it’s true.  I don’t know if other people’s spiritual lives have themes, but mine definitely does.  In college, it was food ethics, and after college it was sexual ethics, and now it seems it is creativity.  Maybe I’m still too in the thick of it to have much to say that makes sense.

I guess for this rambling post on my blog’s birthday I mainly wanted to try and convey some joy and celebration and wish folks ever-increasing tenderness towards themselves, great love with friends and lovers, and development of a creative life whatever that means for you.  On we go!

A toast to creativity!

Onto the tag. Clip Snark tagged me in his (or her? Sorry CS – I’m not sure) post as part of a tagging game. I get to answer a few questions and then share a bunch of blogs that I enjoy reading.

The rules are:

• you must post the rules
• answer eleven questions
• create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged (you can use the same questions, they’re good ones)
• tag eleven people with a link to your post (yup)
• let them know you tagged them

Do you have a test or tests that help you judge someone’s character?
Using two question marks (??) in an email. It’s never a good thing.

When did you first feel like a grown up?
Still waiting for that one.

What is something you read that made you wish you could write that well?
Oh, anything by Annie Dillard. How I wish I had that kind of boundless creativity.

What do you say when you answer the phone?
I have phone fear so on the rare occasions that I actually pick up it’s a simple “Hello.”

Have you ever stiffed someone on a tip?
Well…there was a dine-and-dash incident many, many years ago. I still have shame about it. Don’t hate me restaurant industry people!

Do you have a favorite writing utensil?
I’m a typer. I couldn’t live without cut and paste.

Do you use a calendar?
1) Yes, and 2) electronic. But I look forward to answering no to both of those questions one day.

Do you have road rage?
I’m mostly a pedestrian and a passenger. But yes.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Night owl cast against type.

What surprised you about blogging when you first started?
That people actually read stuff that you write.

How do you feel about this type of blogging phenomenon (tagging/awards)?
I dig it.

Other things I read (tag you’re it):

Cereal With a Fork
The Confederacy of Spinsters
Consider the Sauce
The Food Junk
Damp Squid
In Lost Lands
Mother May I Sleep With Lifetime
Pithy Pants
The Surfing Pizza
Tech-o-rama
The Upstate Eater