It’s been a week since we transitioned from 2009 to 2010, and in many ways, I’ve felt that the new year needed to be a time where changes were made, life-affirming habits were formed, and self-imposed limitations were relinquished. And, perhaps inevitably, this needs to be extended to my blog.
I feel that, somewhere over 2009, I lost my way, and that this has been extremely evident on my blog with its sporadic posts, its unfinished projects, its lack of direction. For a while now, I’ve been posting on Posterous, and this week I’ve started sharing a photograph a day on Blipfoto, and I’ve been very happy doing both of those things. For me they felt like a release – they felt liberating. And it struck me that I should feel this way about Less Ordinary… but I don’t. And I haven’t for a while.
I have considered that maybe it was time for Less Ordinary to finish up. Maybe I had really said all I needed to say, and now I needed to say goodbye to my blog altogether. I have also considered that maybe Less Ordinary just needed to become a life-stream site: a place where all the feeds of my various other online activities could be aggregated. However, I’ve decided on something different…
I’ve decided I need to get back to what this blog was original set up to be – a personal blog. It needs to be true to me and what I’m about and what I feel I need to say. It needs to be about me stepping forward and standing behind my beliefs, my dreams and my aspirations. I’ve been apologetic and sheepish about my lack of engagement with Less Ordinary for far too long – I need to reclaim it again as my own, in order to find any sense of flow here.
So what can you expect? To be honest, I don’t really know myself yet. I would imagine that I’ll continue to share my photography, my words, my stories. I would imagine that I would work out what I think about certain things that I encounter on my journey through life. I would imagine that I would share experiences, plans, thoughts and opinions. And if this sounds familiar, its probably because that’s what this blog was about in the first place.
Back in August 2009, I asked for feedback on the blog and suggestions for changes that could be made – at this point I was still looking outside myself for the answers. And what struck me about the majority of the answers were that I needed to take the blog in whichever direction I wanted to. At the time, when I felt so directionless in my life, I couldn’t fathom how to take it in any direction – it’s been just as caught within that moment of indecisiveness as the rest of my life has!
It’s only really now that I see what all my beautiful readers already saw – that Less Ordinary needs that personalised focus, and it needs me to be willing to take the lead, otherwise our dance descends into an embarrassing episode of trodden toes, stumbles and missed beats, and we’re asked to vacate the floor – lol!
So – renewal by flame. When a fire sweeps through clearing away all that was obstructing new growth, the result is an irrepressible fertile burst of new life. And that’s what I want for Less Ordinary. I want this post to be the cleansing flame that permits the fresh start – that let’s me hit the reset button. I want to go back to the roots and rediscover why I fell in love with blogging in the first place.
I’ve started by redesigning the blog, so if you’ve been reading this in your feed-reader, you may want to click through and have a look at the revamped Less Ordinary. I’ve changed the theme, the headers, and I’ve adjusted the sidebars accordingly; however, the sidebars will be reconfigured in a much larger way shortly – I still have plans of integrating my other online activities into Less Ordinary.
I realise this might all come across as being rather self-involved, but I don’t really feel the need to justify that – I need to do this, so I have. I do want to say a big thank you though, to all my readers over the years who have not only encouraged me and supported me, but have also provided limitless inspiration.
Thank you & big kisses to you all!
Amy, this is a very honest post. And it’s great to see you take a step closer to yourself in your online activities. I’ve gone through something similar myself, which has lead me to redesign and relaunch my blog too.
It’s a challenge to keep it close to yourself. Especially with all those blogs out there that advice you to accomodate your readership, to focus on a niche, to create pillar content and so on. But not everything I do needs to be run as a business. You have to trust that your readership changes as you change. In every step in your learning process, and with every experience and thought you share, you have the possibility to connect to someone and maybe to inspire them. So let your blog evolve as you evolve
If you want to set fire to it, go right ahead. It’ll be a bonfire for sure, and your readers will join you in the celebration
Lodewijk´s last blog ..A new beginning
Amy,
I’m smiling from ear to ear because I just re-launched Life’s Little Inspirations Friday after feeling almost word for word exactly the same way. Maybe 2009 was a year of shedding old skin. Letting go of preconceived ideas of what limits us and beginning to embrace just how far we can all go. I believe it is going to be an amazing journey for a lot of us..
I’ve always love this blog. ( I do try to follow you around at your other places too.) This one has always had something that your others don’t have. And while everything you do is wonderful, the center thread that has never left Less Ordinary is found simply in the title.
That it is your magical gift of looking with AMY eyes at what could be ordinary and finding the extraordinary. It doesn’t have to be anymore thematic then that…because that in itself is like peeking through a looking glass and stumbling on a bit of heaven.
BE AMY. You are extraordinary.
Wendi Kelly~Life’s Little Inspirations´s last blog ..Living the Inspired Life
Oh, how I resonated with this one… this is my first visit to your blog and already you’ve got me. As a fellow blogger, writer and perfectionist (you didn’t call yourself this. Im just guessing…) I struggle with the same challenge: How to live my life artistically, fully and freely while also maintaining a professional writing presence online. You are a very good writer – honest, open hearted, real. These questions and the struggle itself is your work – our work – it’s what blogs gave us the chance and opportunity to do: Share real life expansion and unfolding in a public forum where our shifting and changing, and our thoughtful exploration of our own questions could inspire and encourage other people to do the same. Looking through your blog and the comments your readers have left, I can see that you’re already doing that beautifully. What I mean is, THIS is your work. THIS is your path. THIS is how you are bringing your gift to the world. You are already doing it. And doing it well.
Amy, your words and photos never ever fail to light the way. There have been so many points in my own writing life, well really life period that I have felt that I lost my way. I am learning to enjoy the adventure of being lost. When we are in that wilderness we emerge with focused intention and a renewed purpose. As we question, we discover, and discovery results in growth. I am always happy to read your words whether they are 140 characters or in the form of a photo that breathtakingly speaks 1000 words. You are loved Amy! I love the new design and am buckling in with a cuppa to enjoy. xoxo
Karen Swim´s last blog ..What You Can Learn from the Leno Shuffle
Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for leaving such beautiful, thoughtful and encouraging comments. It’s really so very appreciated.
Kisses to you all!
Amy
xx