It all started with an idea that came to me in the shower

"It all started with an idea that came to me in the shower."   

How many stories in your life begin this way?  Or "that came to me while I was running/driving/doing dishes," or "during that boring homily at church" (NEVER happened at mine – I have a phenomenal preacher, plus my kids wouldn’t let me focus long enough to know if it was boring or not, let alone have a thought of my own), or "as I was drifting off to sleep."  

Because let's face it folks, if you're anything like me, your best ideas come to you at the most random times.  Usually, the times when you can't do a darn thing about them!  Not even write them down. 

That's usually when I get my ideas for reflections and blog posts.  In fact, that’s when I got the idea to start a blog in the first place.

But in most cases, I get my brilliant ideas at the most inopportune times, and then...I lose them.  By the time I’m out of the shower and get myself ready for the attack of crazy that is our daily life, the idea is gone, or muffled at best.

Sometimes I can hold on to little snippets of these ideas, and I write them down on a scratch paper somewhere – post-it notes, corners of deposit slips in the checkbook, my bookmarks, the kids’ school papers they brought home, anywhere I can find a corner. 

But finding a corner of my messy house and my busy schedule to sit down to write in is a different story.  More often than not, my scratches never materialize.  By the time I find time (and energy) to write, either the idea is past – outdated and no longer relevant (“maybe next year,” I tell myself often), or the idea is simply no longer fresh and I can’t quite flesh it out as elegantly as it seemed in the shower.  (WARNING, WARNING, PERFECTIONIST ALERT!)  Or else my scratch paper is past – already out with the recycling, covered in coffee drips or colored over by the five year old.

It seems that attack of crazy – and busy and messy – gets in the way one way or another.  And before I know it, my brilliant shower idea is a vague memory, rather than a shared reality. 

More and more, as life gets busier and busier, I find this to be the case.  Lots of chicken scratches, lots of inner-brain-memos, lots of thoughts and feelings to share, all still stuck in the land of can't seem to do a darn thing about them. 

And hence, my blog (as you may have noticed) has sat quiet for some time.

* * * * * * * * *  

A few weeks ago I had another idea in the shower.  I had heard about a conference – the Catholic Women Bloggers Network Midwest Conference.  A few great writers I follow and admire would be speaking, and I have been thinking about how I need to find some inspiration to end the hibernation my blog seemed to be in.  So, I thought as I rinsed off my conditioner, why not go?  And this time the idea stuck with me long after I was dried off (as much as my nervous-self tried at times to get rid of it).  So I took a risk and signed up.

And man, was it out of my comfort zone!  Driving to the Twin Cities…alone...a room full of strangers…having to force my introverted-self to be sociable all day long…meeting bloggers I had since only admired from afar in person…“pretending” I am a blogger around all kinds of wonderful real women bloggers.  I was pretty sure I was headed into something way out of my league! 

But somehow I managed to not turn the van around that morning, and there I was.  Sitting in a beautiful historic home on Summit Avenue, surrounded by close to 40 other Catholic women, learning about the incredible topics they write on regularly and the great talents they promote through their blogs.  (panic)  There I was.  Listening to speakers sharing about how they’ve turned their blogs into businesses – one who has published three books already, one who supported her whole family for a year on just her blog’s income, and one who sells adorable clothing and parenting goods from the confines of her home. (panic)  There I was.  Feeling overwhelmed and under-creative.  I don't craft, I can't sew, I don't cook, I have no patents pending, and my goodness if the apocalypse won't be here before I find time to write another blog let alone a whole book.  (panic)  There I was.  Realizing the hobby-ness and infrequency of my writing, surrounded by so many “real” bloggers.  Heck, I don’t even have a working computer, let alone the time to write on one – how on earth could I compete with these other bloggers?!! 

But that’s when I realized, I don’t have to compete.

The conference speakers really encouraged us all to keep at it.  Blogging need not be a “competition.”  There is room in the World Wide Web (they don’t call it wide for nothing) for everyone!

These women, each of whom started out just like me, writing on a whim (perhaps even one that came to them in the shower or during that uninspired homily), aren’t necessarily where they are at today because they are writing new and other-worldly ideas.  They are simply writing from their own lenses, their own experiences, and their own unique ways in which God is speaking to them and their lives.  The conference invited us all to acknowledge the unique voice and perspective we have on things, even those things that have already been written about - in the blog world or otherwise.  We don’t have to have shower epiphanies that change the world, we just have to have our own worlds and share them. 

“Keep at it, there’s room enough for everyone,” I kept hearing a voice say.  Perhaps that was Nell’s voice, or Laura’s, or Halley’s.  Or perhaps, it was my own (it does sound an awful lot like the voice I hear spouting out wonderfully poetic thoughts in the shower).

I love writing.  I love discovering – about myself, about God, about love and life and family and faith – as I write.  I love how I feel and who I am when I’ve written.  And I want to keep at that!   

In addition to encouraging us all to continue sharing our many voices, the speakers also stressed that the main purpose of blogging as a woman of faith ought to be bringing glory and honor to God. 

Because I love to write, because I discover so much in doing so, because writing makes me feel better and is a form of prayer and release and revelation for me, I know that I am a better mother, better person, better disciple for doing so.  What could be more holy and glorifying than that?

And so I need to keep at it.  Not for the speakers sake, or for the other fantastic women who share this blog-world with me; not for the sake of any potential business or broad acclaim, but for the glory of God, who created me and my love of writing. 

 
I don’t have to have my thoughts perfected.  I don’t have to have multiple brilliant ideas a week.  I don’t have to do any more than I am able to do in my busy life right now. 

But what I do do, the ideas I do have and the ways I can put them into words – that I should be sharing.  That is what makes me a “real” blogger.   

 * * * * * * * * * 

So while my "best ideas" may never quite make it to paper or to screen (some may never even make it out of the bathroom with me) I can still share the few that I am able to.  And I can be proud of that.  And who knows, like Doc Brown’s scratch paper of the flux-capacitor or Archimedes’ bathtime revelation about his king’s crown problem, maybe someday one of my posts will change the world.

After all, at some point this whole big blogging world was merely an idea that came to someone in the shower one day.