rediscovery

It feels odd, honestly, to be typing in this space again. Though it's only been just over a week since I last blogged, it feels like an eternity ago. But I don't regret taking this time off -- on the contrary, it was just the thing I needed.

Among other things, one of the reasons for my break was to reevaluate who I am and how I want to be defined as a blogger. I'd reached a point where I needed to step back and sort everything out, and for that I needed time. It was as though I'd rammed straight into a brick wall, not able to go forward with what I'd been doing before, but having to go left or right with something different. Over the past few weeks, my posts seemed to all be the same -- give or take a few words, they'd morphed into variations of their successors. These posts could be summed up in three words: summer, farmer's markets, and weather, also known as the standard of every blogger. But I didn't want my blog to fit a standard mold. It was time for a change.

So pastor's girl's ponderings is growing, breaking out of its chrysalis and stretching its new wings, colorful and exciting and different. More photographs, stories, and recipes, less standard "life is lovely". While I'm not denying the fact that life is lovely, because it is, there are ugly, raw sides too. Life deserves a more descriptive, meaningful adjective than lovely. I'm tired of the saccharine flowers-and-sweetness approach; I aim to portray life more realistically. I've vowed to take more photographs, to write with passion, to capture this sliver of life at the moment the best I can.

While blogging, it's easy to get caught up in numbers. Watching the number of comments, followers, and stats quickly becomes an obsession until posts are dictated by the uncontrollable need to see the numbers rise. But that's not what blogging is about. Part of this rediscovery period I'm going through involves having good content I'm proud of, not just blogging to see the page views increase.

It's going to be hard. It's going to feel odd at first, until I settle into my own little niche. I'm going to want to give up. But it'll be worth it. It'll be oh, so worth it.

But now, after a few days off, I'm remembering just why I fell in love with blogging. Sculpting something beautiful using sentences and text makes me smile. And because pastor's girl's ponderings is reinvented, it makes me even happier and excited.

Little sister got glasses.

It's good to be back.

Happy Saturday, friends!

-carlotta

p.s. interested in sponsoring pastor's girl's ponderings? I'm now accepting for september! feel free to email me for details :)