HOW DID I GET TO THIS MOMENT? And sometimes…WHAT AM I DOING!? I’m clearly not the expert on blogging, but I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. NUMBER ONE: This is quite possibly the worst time to start a blog. My Christmas list is screaming at me, I’ve got a billion errands before our trip to visit my folks for the holidays, and my writing deadlines are on a mission to annihilate all my brain cells. Oh, and there’s this blog…
I started serious work here in August. And ever since it has been a blur of bone-tired days, my kids coming in and out of my room begging for time, too much coffee, not enough sleep, and my husband staring at the alien language that is my blog’s css. Like it were a matrix I was jumping into with no chance of return. And somehow lately, we’ve been surmounting disasters.
Last October my dad suddenly couldn’t breath. My mom, brother and sister in law, who’s a doctor, rushed him to the ER, just in time to stop what would have been his second heart attack. The next day, the nearby island of Bohol was struck by a 7.2 earthquake. Dad was recovering at the 10th floor of the hospital, and my mom was home alone. When I got through to her, she was on the floor amidst broken glass telling me, “It was just too strong Ina.” But it wasn’t over yet.
In November 8, Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of Leyte Province, including my home town of Ormoc, where many of my extended family still live. At this point, we were all just holding our breaths for the next bad thing to happen. I was exhausted and ready to give up blogging even before it took off, but here’s NUMBER TWO: Know for sure what kind of blog you want, and you will somehow see it through.
I spent a lot of time asking myself hard questions about whether I was up to it. Many weeks of reflection went by before I finally found my voice, and knew exactly what I wanted for this, my little space on the web. I loved it from day one. And when you love something, you will, under most circumstances, keep relatively calm and carry on. It doesn’t make creating a blog easy, but it makes it EASIER. Especially during the dark days of coding. Which brings me to NUMBER THREE: Ask for help.
Once you realize like I did, that no matter how smart you think you are, there will always be people who are smarter than you when it comes to certain things, the quicker you can come down from that DIY high horse (like I did) and ask for help. There’s a reason why people go to school to learn html and css—the bones of every blog. The Internet is filled with useful resources from these experts. Tutorials, glorious tutorials! They were a Godsend for a new blogger such as myself. I got particularly awesome advise from TK and his cool, informative blog, Post 1/8. My friend Eula also has some pretty easy tips at eulasleeps.com. Don’t have the time and patience to code your own blog? You might want to send Corrine Kelley aka the blog decorator an email.
Someone was too busy blogging to make Christmas ornaments. Bokeh to the rescue!
It’s been a month now since the storm, nearly two months since the earthquake and since dad got back home, and about four long months since I started to set up Tales from the Cusp. I just can’t believe this day has finally come. I put our tree up today and it’s a bit lonely, wanting for ornaments (which I promised to make this year but guess what happened). But I feel lucky that we can put it up at all, or that I can be writing this post. Here’s hoping it will be the first of many!
Take care and see you on the next.
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