Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Broad Brushstrokes of Thought

The evaporation rate of water here is phenomenally quick. We have a week with continuous light rain and today after a day or so the flowers out back and on the front porch are dry, dry...parched. One of the first chores of the morning after putting feed in the feeders and water in the birdbaths is to get these plants watered. I also watered the patch where I put all that seed and sparkles dictate when to water...which I don't know if I have seen a sparkle or not and I think there might be a few little sprouts. I will have to wait and see if the sprouts develops into beautiful flowers or if it is just another weed. Some of the weeds around here are downright beautiful but the goal is to keep things maintained where vermin and snakes either can't find sanctuary or dinner. While outside working I put out another round of Round Up on the weeds I can reach.

I love the publicity the Chewbacca Mom is getting. She has been on GMA and Kohl's gave her gift cards and points. There aren't any Chewbacca masks to be found on any online retailer. Just because she posted a video of her joy over finding the mask. Her infectious laughter is just that, infectious. After months and months of reading umpteen million blogs, Tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts by people doing all the "right things" to have a platform or a tribe or publicity and those who push the "how to" side of being discovered...in all simplicity, with no fore-thought of fame...boom, the mom with the infectious laugh is blowing up the Internet and probably the hopes and designs of millions hoofing it for fame and attention. Several months ago I signed up for what I thought would be one email on being a better devo writer. I do not have aspirations of writing devotionals, it was merely a selfish thing for better writing and composition for journaling.  I need to unsubscribe because the emails are filling up the inbox by this author who wants to help me to achieve it all and if I will just pay a one time fee I have access to all the knowledge, podcasts and videos in the collection...no, thank you, it was just a whim of being a better journal-er.

When I was young I could have gone the way of self promotion because I inherited the gift of salesmanship from my father. It is a gift that I returned because that isn't who I wanted to be. Oh my goodness, the constant push to use whatever to get the brand out there. I know it needs to be done to be successful but it would wear me out I think. I don't see it energizing me or those who I am trying to meet, greet, encourage or whatever. In college I started as a communications major only because I didn't know what else to do. In high school I had some success with drama and speech tournaments...so there ya go. Now if I had known this was also in the business school in college, it might have been a whole other story.

You might say, well you write a blog...yep I do and I write because it is difficult for me to journal fun and happy and funny things.I'm thinking if it made me laugh maybe writing it on a blog is making others laugh. Who knows why?  So on the blog, it is like a journal of sorts and I am glad when people enjoy the writing, but I am mainly writing for me to remember stuff that can be lost in the minutia of ordinary days. At the end of the year I have that year's posts printed so it is in book form. I don't think I ever want to view people as a vehicle to drive my product and I am not thinking of friends who represent jewelry or makeup and stuff like that. I am mainly thinking in ministry terms... It would be no better than Campus Crusaders or whatever the name is now who view each new person they meet as a potential donor to the cause or come back to those they have already approached and re-dun them again. I seem to choose Campus Crusade because of experiences with the organization since I was in high school. Whether you are pushing a ministry or a blog or a book or whatever, if we become self absorbed in those pursuits, we don't always know what is going on with the people that we see as a conduit to help us achieve our goals and desires.

These are broad brushstrokes of thought. I just think it is ironic that sometimes a little surprise comes from just being and not being so intentional to get our name out there.

I better get back to my chores. Now I need to get the wasp traps ready and maybe, just maybe sitting on the front porch can be stinger free.

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