Back in the Saddle Again

"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.