Saturday, October 13, 2007

Finding Your Voice

At the urging of a friend who knows how I appreciate reading books with compelling voice, I picked up Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In a nutshell - it follows a woman's journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia in order to find herself. My friend was right - I was hooked, page after page. The writing is descriptive and engaging and I could picture myself in each of the places the author wrote about - both physically and spiritually.

This post is my 99th on this particular blog. Bloggers tend to make a big deal about their 100th post - but I have been delaying that milestone for sometime because I feel like I am still trying to figure out what this blog is all about. It started as a place to continue conversations about writing with participants in my workshops. It evolved into the development of my own thoughts about writing and the writing process in general. And now - I am no longer sure what it is!!

I had pushed the notion of really reflecting about the blog to the back of my mind until I read this extrememly compelling post by Konrad Glogowski. He writes about his struggle to find his role as "blogger" with his eighth grade students.

"In other words, I want the students to see me as yet another blogger in their community, as someone whose reason for being there is not only to support and instruct but also to learn. To learn from and with my students."


In a very compelling way - he takes us through how he has changed not only the appearance of his blog, but the content as well in order to make it more of himself. I am undergoing a similar type of reflection - thinking about why I blog and who I am. And so I leave this 99th blog with this thought:


"I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me." - Anna Quindlen

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