Why Do I Write?

I normally only get a couple of hours of free time every night if I'm lucky. Somehow I have to spend quality time with my wife, take care of chores, and still manage to go bed at a time I won't hate myself for in the morning.

So why write?

It takes up time and effort at a time when I don't have much of either.

A part of me wants this blog to be my insurance. My insurance that if anything were to happen to me, my son would still have a way to get to know me at least a little bit.

A part of me wants to chronicle events before I forget them. I'm often tired and exhausted at the end of a day, but the weeks slip away unnoticed at times. Memories fade and there are good ones that I want to preserve. I want to show the video of Shane's first attempt at picking his nose when he's much older and can see the humor (and possibly be horribly embarrassed) about it.

A part of me wants to believe I could be an author one day. The blog is good practice to get in the rhythm of writing and work on my 'craft.' I feel like I have many stories to tell and I want to tell them. At it's heart, writing is a social activity. It's meant to be shared. 

Another part of me acknowledges I'm ADHD out that whazoo and the act of organizing my thoughts into a coherent story is a rewarding challenge. It helps to process events and focus on the things that I want to remember. I'm a big believer in 'happiness is a choice.' The negative will always be there, and needs to be acknowledged, but if you pray and focus on the positive you (and everyone around you) will be far better off. There are plenty of things I could write about, but they don't pass the "What would I want to re-read a decade from now?" test. Complaining is not at the top of the list.

I write for a lot of reasons. My family has only recently discovered my blog, but any entertainment they get out of reading it is another reason to keep writing. It's hard to believe I've been at this for a couple of years now. It just reinforces another one of my beliefs:

If you want to get anywhere or do anything you have to do something. It doesn't matter how small, if you keep at it then you'll end up further than where you started.