It’s the end of #NaBloPoMo2019 Week 3 (well, the last weekday, which feels like the end of the week). I don’t totally buy the “21 days to build a habit” thing, but I definitely felt a shift this week. When an idea popped up I wanted to explore, my first impulse was to write a blog post, not to toss it out there on Facebook.

Here’s why I think this is important.

I thrive on conversation. My ideas come into focus as I toss them back and forth with other people, which is why social media is such a draw for me. Friends! Comments! Talking about stuff!

But social media also a trap. Many ideas fizzle out when I toss them into the churn before they’ve had time to marinate. Or, they’re simply carried away by the current and forgotten. Distraction is a deep-thought killer.

My blog feels like a place to rest and catch my breath. A place to sit with my ideas and turn them over in my mind, giving them care and time to gain some strength.

More importantly, blogging forces my ideas through the turn-them-into-legible-words filter, which redirects plenty of material into the trash because it’s not worthy of any more attention (either mine or yours).

Blogging isn’t just making me a better writer, it’s making me a better thinker and a more discriminating storyteller.

(Are you convinced to start or re-start your blog yet?)

Here are a few of my favorite #NaBloPoMo2019 posts from this week:

It was a good day to turn 48
Sarah Cunningham and I share a birthday! Just one of those tiny sparks of connection that has come out of this blogging experiment. Happy birthday, Sarah. I love that we now know this about each other.

Last night
Why is Kim’s collection of chicken claw tongs important? Because she posted about them before the stroke of midnight so she would fulfill her #nablopomo2019 commitment to herself, rather than posting something else that still needed more time to marinate (see intro above). Brava, Kim!

My Top Three Lessons from “School” in Italy
Jacqueline Jannotta is my friend and the author of Let’s Leave the Country: A Guide to Your Family Year Abroad. It is such an inspiring and practical book. (TL;DR: YOU CAN DO THIS, HERE’S HOW.) This post brings us to Italy and what they learned in school there.

Thank you to all who are participating in #NaBloPoMo2019. I’m so glad we’re doing this.

I’m blogging every weekday in November for #NaBloPoMo2019 — National Blog Posting Month. For more info, check out the kickoff announcement and the #NaBloPoMo2019 FAQ.

Photo by Bill Anderson-Blough