Everything has a beginning...

I have wanted to write a blog.  For years.  I've put it off because I don't really know what I'm doing.

Back in the dark ages, I wrote because it was a way to get thoughts on paper and in doing so, those thoughts kinda straightened themselves out.  (This was even before journals were popular.  I used loose leaf notebook paper... gasp!)  I loved writing papers for Dr. Hagen in Freshman English at OBU because writing was release.  (The passing years may have increased the enamor, but I do remember enjoying most of them!)

Beginning in junior high, when things seemed crazy complicated, I wrote.  I went to college and began to wonder if I had ever known what "crazy complicated" looked like; writing for personal clarity turned strategically sporadic.  Then I started teaching and "crazy complicated" took on a whole new dimension, so I wrote a little less.  Then I got married...

Outside of a few entries made in my Bible study and fishing journals during the summers, I haven't written much for, let's say 25 years.  

But I want to do this.  I want to have a place to reflect on teaching.  I want a place where I can throw out ideas that might be helpful to other teachers, passing on some of the inspiration that builds in me from reading others' blogs.  I want to be able to look back and say "What in the world was I thinking?" as well as "Well, that was cool!".

I want a place where I can chronicle bicycling.  I am going to ride across the US.  Lord willing, and the Creek don't rise. (That idiom intends no disrespect to my native American friends.)

I want a place where I can revel in the awesomeness of our Creator and give thanks for the creative work He continues to do in me.

I want a place to write about things I haven't even thought about writing about yet. :)

I still don't know what I'm doing.  But let the adventure begin!