Leaving Home - Leaving Blogspot

“Would you meet with him?”

I don’t know.

But I do know that this is the last time I will be asking this question on this blog.

I am moving on, figuratively and physically.

From now on you will find me in my new house, a website designed for Amity Publishers.

There is always a sadness in a move.

This is a little like moving from one house to another. No matter how new the next house is or how perfectly designed it is, there is always something that isn’t quite right. Each house has its defects. And no matter how shabby the old house was or how makeshift it seemed at first, each home has its comforts.

I feel that way now as I move from this blogspot home to my new website cyberspace house. 

Leaving this interim blogspot, where I thought I was going to be for only a couple of months, isn't easy; it did become a home for me. It became comfortable and cozy for me. I think its casual atmosphere and informality gave me a freedom of expression that I needed during this time. I know that it instigated some very good conversations. I had some lovely times on here, so I am gaining something in the move, but I am also losing.

However, there are times when one must change, leave some of the comforts behind, leave some of the conveniences behind and try something new, no matter how terrifying.

Of course I worry. I wonder if I will change. I wonder if the tone of my blogs will change. I wonder if I will have trouble trying to answer my new question. I wonder if I will tire of it all. I wonder if it will be too much.  I wonder about so much.

Mainly I wonder if it will ever feel like a home….

But I do want to invite you to come and make this move with me. Come visit me at the www.amitypublishers.net website. With time we will try to make it a home.

Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 

Photo by: Cliff Derksen

However, we are taking the flowers and the photographer with us to the new house....

Courtesy of Assiniboine Conservatory

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Fragile in Cyberspace

“Would you meet with him?

I don’t know.

We are meeting as bloggers.

I sent out an invitation to come and help us launch the website www.amitypublishers.net which we did in high style with champagne, a toast, and even a prayer. We had chocolate, grapes, blueberry cheese, crackers and such. It can’t get much better than that. We even projected the site on the web and I told them the year-long story behind the building of it.

I emphasized how difficult it was. In hindsight, I think I still feel guilty that it took me so long to do something others find so easy. The website was not hard but determining how I was going to do it was hard.

We didn’t linger on the website. We went around the circle and talked about our blogging experience. There were some who had written only one blog; some who had written and then stopped a year ago. There were some who were writing sporadically, and some who were in the groove.

There was even one who didn’t write blogs, never read them and had no intention of writing one or reading them. Can you imagine that? And he even dared to admit it. He really had no chance. We all ganged up on him, pestered him with questions and finally came up with a theme for him, a way he could blog and his contribution to all of us if he did. He agreed to think about it. I hope he realizes that it was all in fun.

The rest of us talked about the role of blogging for us and that deep longing to write. We all felt it was important it is to find words for what we are experiencing.

The guests understood my difficulty. We talked about how hard it is to write when things aren’t going well in our lives. There was recognition that when we are doing well, it is easy to blog. When we are suffering, it is much more difficult to be open about it or even open about other things in our lives.

It is difficult to be exposed and to live transparently so that everyone can see what we are inside and out.

For some reason the website feels as if I am exposing myself even more. It is terrifying. Perhaps that has been another reason why it took so long.

Perhaps it is one of the reasons I needed friends around me. Thank you for coming. Thank you for toasting the moment.

Come and have a close-up look at the website where I will be blogging... www.amitypublishers.net

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. – Flora Whittemore

Photo by: Cliff Derksen

Even the flowers feel fragile under the close-up lens of a photographer.

Flowers are courtesy of Assiniboine Conservatory

Winnipeg, Manitoba