...to my new blog, or enjoy some stories from my archives here. Decomama has been reinvented as DEBunked.
Thank you for all your support over these last 13 years. It has been a wonderful ride and I am looking forward to the next chapter.
You can follow my journey at http://www.debunked.blog
Relaunching. Reinventing. Rebooting. That's a whole lot of RE's. I am REady to REsurrect my blog and course correct my writing journey. You heard it here first people. Decomama has served me well since 2009 but like everything in life, there comes a time when things need a shake up. That time is now. I was going to mess with the format today but it felt like an arduous task when all I really felt like doing was writing. The thing with REbirthing is that it is hard work. I know. I know. As author Glennon Doyle famously hammers home the message of "we can do hard things", I still REsist and procrastinate until I just cannot go one more day without tackling whatever it is that needs tackling.
Over the next short while, you will likely be REdirected to a new blogsite, hear some stories you haven't heard before (well, at least not in written form), and my wish is that all my former and current REaders will join me on this new REpaved road. I never know where it is going (do any of us?), but it could be REcharging for me and REvealing to you.
As just about any writer will tell you, the process of writing begins long before the first keystroke. It's much like how great sex doesn't start in the bedroom. Great long lead in time to the story in my mind or the days of flirtation that lead to that memorable romp are an important part of the journey. I will admit I need way more time with a story idea than I do for the foreplay. Weeks and months versus hours and days, however that may be TMI for some of you. I digress. My point is I have had a lot of ideas on simmer the last year or so that finally feel ready to REgurgitate.
You could expect some tales from what I am dubbing The Kyeema North Chronicles, or, thoughts on what it is like being the mother of a Transgender kid, or Navigating Life with Aging Parents, or being a Plant-Based eater in a world of Carnivores, or reflections on Boomer Women and Aging (who is that staring back at me in the mirror?). Some light reading (gardening, decorating, cooking) interspersed with some more serious subjects and always a bit of humour because if we cannot laugh at ourselves or the folly of life, it sure wouldn't be much fun. In a world where everyone seems so touchy and overly sensitive about just about everything and every pronoun, it is my belief we all need to lighten up a bit and RElax.
For a start, I am going to create a new handle. I am no longer working as a decorator and although I am still and always will be a Mom, my kid has been out of the nest for some time now and I no longer feel the same sense of identification with either of those former, full-on roles. Who is Decomama now? What words would I use to describe my 64 year old self? What do I want to convey to my readers? Jump in here folks. I am not settled on a new name yet. Please send me your suggestions. Should I choose your idea for my new Blog Title, I will award you with the garden ornament you see in the photo above. I make these as a hobby now (always the decorator). If you don't like the prize, I will give it to someone you know who does.
REady, set, go!
"Debra, you're a storyteller." That was what an astrologer told me years ago after reviewing my unique birth chart. Of all the things she told me, that was the one tidbit that stuck with me. Afterall, when you're trying to figure out what your purpose in life is and someone tells you exactly what you are, well, it's a bloody miracle when you've been on a mission to figure out who you are your entire life.
So, I started writing a blog in 2009. The first year I wrote several times each week. I gathered a few followers and I told my stories and some people enjoyed them and I felt like I was accomplishing something each day when I hit the 'publish" button. It was fun and novel and it became an addiction almost. I loved thinking up things to write about and then finding the photos to go with each blog post and coming up with clever titles. It was creative and therapeutic. The constant grind of blog writing became more difficult when I stopped working for myself (Debramac Interiors) and started working for an employer and the demands on my time became such that I only wrote on my days off. It wasn't long before other life changes took priority and before you knew it, my writing started to take a back seat to work, various moves, home renovations, a new relationship, life on a new continent and a second house to care for and then the ultimate game changer - Covid Chaos.
Throughout all of these years and upheavals, I still wanted to write, but my apparent "life purpose" as a storyteller slowly got lost in my over-shuffled deck of cards. The story teller in me became dormant...aka, almost dead. Had I become just another "blogger" statistic destined to fizzle out like a Canada Day sparkler? Burnt out, tossed in the rubbish bin, forgotten.
I was recently inspired by my good friend Cindy (aka...Halifax Broad), over at the newly launched www.THEBROAD.ca (her new handle) who was resurrecting her once award winning writing (Marketing Magazine's most creative Canadian of the Year in 2010). She had mentioned in her opening piece that I had been the one to inspire her to start writing all those years ago and, humbled as I was that she credited me for that, I felt undeserving considering I was no longer telling my stories. How could I have ever been anyone's inspiration? It was enough to make me take notice and do something about it.
So here I am folks, in my comfy chair on a too hot July day, with my well used MacBook Air with the faded e,t,a,n and o keys on my lap telling a story. Considering the "i" key is not faded, must mean that my stories have not all been about me (way too boring), but more about how we all stumble along in this life, dealing with the cards we are dealt in the best ways we know how. If my stories can be inspiring or relatable or even mildly entertaining, then maybe that astrologer was right (thanks Robin), maybe I am but a simple storyteller and that should not only be a priority, but in regard to purpose...enough.
So, here were go.. Published Blog number 487. Back in the Saddle Again.
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