Resurrecting My Blog

Still life with books and primroses by the Finnish artist Marga Toppelius-Kiseleff. 1886

 

 

 

Easter seems like a good time to try to put some new life into this blog again. I have written nothing for nearly two years but recently I had occasion to look back at my posts and wonder whether I could make another attempt to continue.

While many people began to write blogs and share their thoughts during the pandemic I went back to my handwritten diary and wrote much more regularly, almost daily, there. I have also spent much more time on social media, sharing daily art from my Pinterest boards on Facebook and expanding my use of Twitter to include more art, humour and even virtual friends.

The isolation of the past year has, in some ways, been easier for me than for many others. I have not been alone and my husband, the driver, has been the one to make forays into the outside world. As we are both retired we have not had any work worries as we are used to working from home on our various projects. We have adapted our routines to include many more deliveries than before and also Zoom meeetings of various kinds. We have also been able (when restrictions allowed) to see family and friends outside in various locations.

I have wondered why I did not include blog writing in my altered routine but can find no convincing answer except that I have always struggled to keep writing here and the uncertainty and fear underlying everything this last year did not improve my tendency to procrastinate!

As the seasons turn however I have found a new resolve to look again at my research into 18th century Quakers, particularly Catherine Payton Phillips, to identify gaps and fill them where I can and to do some writing with a view to publication in some form. I hope that writing here will help with that and that sharing what I write will also be of some use, both to myself and to others.

So here I go, making yet another new start. I hope to find companions on the way.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015-2017 - Z for Zed - The End

This is my last post in the Quaker Alphabet Blog. Since 2013 I have been through the alphabet, writing about Quaker related subjects, four times. Most of the other people who set out on this journey together have moved on to other things and it is time for me to do the same.

I have found this a useful prompt for my blogging - although sometimes no prompt is loud enough for such an arch-procrastinator as myself. The alphabetical structure has sometimes been difficult - not many names begin with Z, although some do, and some letters are much more difficult to find subjects for than others. I was particularly proud of X for Xylography!

I set out to use this format in part to continue to write about lesser-known Quakers of the past and I am happy to have done that. Of my biographical posts the most viewed has been Annie Elizabeth Clark. I certainly intend to continue with this theme and it will be a relief not to have to squeeze my writing into the confines of the alphabet.



Occasionally my alphabetical posts have been historical in other ways and there are themes there which I may try to expand on in future.

Another strand of my blogging has always been the autobiographical and when my life experience and my Quakerism have intersected some more personal posts have appeared in the alphabetical sequence.

So this is not really an ending. I am leaving one particular framework behind but I hope I can use it as a stepping stone to more writing. The difficulty that the alphabet structure was meant to remedy still remains - how to make myself sit down and write. To find out whether I have made any progress there you will have to watch this space!

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015-2016 - P for Procrastination

Procrastination is my besetting sin and writing a Quaker Alphabet blog was supposed to be a way of fighting it, so why have I not written anything for the blog for almost a year?

Part of the reason has been an unexpected health problem. Given my family history I might expect osteoarthritis (check), diabetes (check) or heart problems (not yet!). What I did not expect was acute angle-closure glaucoma which arrived in February and threatened the sight of my left eye. Swift referral from a splendid GP to an equally splendid eye hospital in Bradford meant that the problem was caught more or less in time and dealt with by laser treatment. I emerged feeling battered and uncertain and with a loss of some peripheral vision and this took much longer than I expected to recover from.

At least I now know which of my senses I really don't want to lose! I have spent a lot of time this year looking  - at people I love - at nature around me - at art, especially on Pinterest. I have been reading and researching too although now I am more aware of eye strain and try to take breaks, especially from the computer screen.

Now, with eye drops, regular checkups and the prospect of a possible cataract operation to relieve the pressure further I am feeling alright but I have found it too easy to put off regularly writing this blog. I am now determined to continue this alphabet to its end - but then I will have to find a new way of disciplining myself to write! I hope to reach Z again before the end of this year, but I'm not promising anything.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015 - K for Keep

I seem to have got stuck with my Quaker Alphabet posts again. For a while I couldn't think of anything beginning with K that I hadn't written about already. Then I had an idea suggested to me by someone else but somehow I couldn't make that work. I fretted about the restrictions I had imposed on myself by deciding to write in alphabetical order. I worried that other people were much better at this than me. I procrastinated. I looked at Pinterest a lot.

Then, as has often happened before, during meeting for worship a word, an idea, was given to me. All I had to do was Keep going, Keep on, not worry about Keeping up and Keep awake!

So here I am - and here is something I found on Pinterest.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015 - I for Interruption

It has been almost a month since I wrote for this blog and I was behind with my schedule before that. In itself that should not be a problem but this time there was more to it than just my usual procrastination. I was interrupted by a computer crash.

Most of my research and photo files were backed up or could be recovered so it wasn't such a devastating event as it might have been, but I still felt bereft and helpless. It made me realise how much of my daily life and well-being depends on my computer and forced me re-assess my priorities.

Luckily this interruption coincided with a Facebook request (yes I could still access Facebook via my tablet) from a friend facing chemotherapy for soft knitted hats to wear when she lost her hair, so I had a project which needed doing at once. I also got out of the house more in order to look at art, to appreciate the world around me and even to do some gardening.

Now that the interruption is over and I am back in front of my computer the lesson I have learned is not simply to spend less time in front of a screen but to try to balance my life better so that I do not invest my computer with such an overwhelming importance.

I thought that I would end this post by quoting from Advices and Queries 41 about simplicity, but when I considered further it seems to me that number 11 is more relevant -
'Be honest with yourself. What unpalatable truths might you be evading? When you recognise your shortcomings, do not let that discourage you...'