Using Words.

I don't remember when it was that I stopped writing. Maybe it was when some of my husband's family found this blog, and I was afraid that if I didn't shrink to fit back into that mold that I'd allowed them to fit me into, I might just (gulp)OFFEND someone's fragile sensibilities. That goes also for the some of the people in my southern suburban enclave that discovered my blog once I started a job in town. For years this blog had been relatively anonymous...I had friends who read it (friends who'd found me on the internet), like-minded souls and bloggers who discovered me by happenstance and while searching for people with the same interests. On my sidebar, I've dubbed them my "kindred collective." I felt I could speak plainly, openly. But as it would happen, and as I'm sure it happens to many bloggers, they're discovered by the very people that they are talking about. Their subject matter suddenly becomes their audience. Then, crisis-like, deer-in-the-headlights, knee jerk reactions occur. WE STOP WRITING ALTOGETHER.

But listen to that...it's the sound of dust settling. Or is it the sound of the calm before the storm? I'm finally starting to coax myself back into writing...starting to tell myself the same thing I told my son as a toddler when I was teaching him how to communicate: "Use your words...use your words..." I'm back. And I'm using my words, ya'll.