Just jump in!

As I watched the Olympics recently I marveled at the talent of the olympians, and especially enjoyed the stories of their start in their respective competitive sports. Shawn Johnson, our local sweetheart from right next door in West Des Moines, started at the age of 3 by enrolling in a local gymnastics studio, just like my Hannah did a few years ago. Shawn obviously found her niche in gymnastics - Hannah has moved on to softball. I watched the diving competition and thought about how frightened I was the very first time I jumped off the high board at the Calmar, Iowa pool. For these divers, jumping was clearly a fear they had long ago overcome. And so it is with blogging (though you might argue quite validly that the analogy is a stretch.) I have resisted jumping into this pool for a variety of reasons, mostly related to fear. Fear of having my words publicly available; fear of not being "good enough" (whatever that is); fear of getting sucked into a hobby that would keep me in front of the computer for hours of precious time that could be better spent weeding my garden, laundering underwear, or responding to the never-ending stream of work email that demands my attention.

Where am I going with this? Some years ago I was bitten by the bug that infects all scrapbookers - an inquenchable drive to record the events of life in a way that might just outlast the individual. Scrapbooking has been a way for me to look at life, warts and all, and reflect on its blessings and challenges. But it's more than that, really. I believe it is a command from God to all of us to remember. In the bible, God tells us over and over to remember: remember what He has done, remember where we have been, remember what we've been through, remember Him. I don't know about you, but I've noticed that I don't remember as well as I did twenty or thirty years ago. It drives me nuts! Scrapbooking helps me remember. And I'm thinking that blogging will help with that too. I'm not making any promises, but perhaps it will be a way to keep the people I love, and see way too infrequently, involved in my life as well.

So I'm diving in.....