To Blog or Not to Blog?

All day long three or four posts have been milling about my mind: Friday Feast, The Meme from Melli's, The Book Meme, or a Reflective Post?? I even logged on earlier certain I knew what I was going to say in my post. But, my fingers wouldn't type...I got distracted and Friday grew older. So, here I am again...ready to finally put my thoughts into print. It's been gray and rainy here all day long, so I've decided that I'm going to be a bit melancholy and do the reflective piece.

This morning, I visited my blog friend, Danielle, over at The BiPolar Diaries and found her reflecting on a post she read somewhere else. Her post has been marinating in my head pretty much all day. The crux of it is this: Both posters are thinking about outside influences and pressures and how they often dictate, or even force, our choices. Both Danielle and Heidi note that advertising often preys on us, as adults, and gives us the picture of what we are supposed to have, do, and be. I agree.

Danielle talks about her Memorial Day and her "picture" of what it is "supposed" to be: We're supposed to picnic, swim, and have backyard BBQs, right? Yet, when her friends were unable to come over for a picnic, she found herself questioning her self worth...and everything around her: her house, her family, her cooking....

I do this way too easily. I get a picture in my head about how things are "supposed" to be in the happy little family in America. After all, we are. Right?? I do it at every holiday as a matter of fact. And when it's not "picture perfect" or as grandiose as I think it should be (and Danielle reminds us that it is pictures from the Media that define this for us) then I am often disappointed and disillusioned. And I find myself hosting my own "woe is me" party.

Both Danielle and Heidi go on to talk about schooling and intersecting with parents who are raising children differently (or perhaps not at all). As a public school teacher, I am of the belief that our kids DO need to learn to function in this world. Heidi notes that this entrance into school multiplies the influences on both the child's life as well as the parent's. Danielle notes that we also have a responsiblity to be an advocate for our children. And both are 100% right.

I read something not too long ago that talks about the fact that this generation of kids just entering the workforce have been coddled by and rescued by parents far more than those previous. These are the kids that have been in every kind of lesson, they have been raised in mini-vans and carpools across America, and many have likely had one or more parents living on the sidelines of the dance studio and the ball fields reliving their own childhood fantasies and fighting their battles for them. I am guilty. There are times I HAVE gone to bat for my children...as I feel it's partly my responsibility to do so...when perhaps I should have let them learn on their own. I also think, however, that I have to let them learn some lessons from the "school of hard knocks". It's a balance of sorts. And it's difficult.

As both bloggers point out, it's hard to keep it all in check. Both are trying to keep life simple in the very complex and connected world in which we live. Both are trying to wade through the choices of parenting and living and make decisions to the best of their abilities.

I think it's a dance of sorts. There are needs. There are wants. There is God's will. And, in my opinion, there's one way to navigate it all, by tuning out the loud "voices" on the outside and tuning into the "still small voice" of God. And we have to know that in those moments when the worldly influences win, we are still loved beyond what any of us can imagine.

After all, isn't that really what it's all about?