What's Been Brewing...

don't you think this (completely unrelated) image is magical?

I won’t lie about the fact that occasionally I find myself with a case of blenvy (that is envy of the lives and the loveliness other people showcase on their blogs.) I’ve been at this long enough to know that blog reality is skewed and censored, the photograph only showing the freshly finished craft on the carefully reclaimed table, the heaping mound of procrastinated laundry carefully cropped out. But still. This rosy world of beautiful blogs is tiring, isn’t it? Try as we do to keep things real and honest and doable here at Bloom, I know we’re guilty of it, too -- tiptoeing on the edge, sometimes stumbling over into the wasteland of unattainable idealism. (We’re sorry for those stumblings!)

The fact that this is a visual medium only complicates things further - we post pretty pictures, we feature pretty things. How can we not then be inclined to close our computers and look around at our not-as-pretty real lives and feel like we’re somehow getting the short end?

I have to remind myself that the most beautiful things we do, our most substantial creations aren’t made of fabric or paper (though those are wonderful, too) and they cannot be photographed, not even with the fanciest camera. Many times, they are things that can’t even really be talked about, much less blogged about, because the most beautiful parts of our lives so often transpire quietly, unnoticed - the real meaning only to be diluted in publicity.

But sometimes we just want to be noticed, thanked, praised even.

So from a blog(ger) that appears to give a lot of attention to the pretty pictures and the crafty sorts, I just want to say that I don’t have to know you to tell you that the things I admire most about you are the things you’ll never be able to show me - the way you set other people at ease with your goodness and gentleness. The way you listen to your children and create excitement in the simple pleasures of daily life for them. The way you give of yourself - your time, your means, your gifts - to people who need some of what you have and who you are. The way you are genuinely seeking to be more self-aware, striving for better, but loving yourself enroute. The way you are learning - in a classroom, from a book, from a friend, from the accumulated experience of your life. The way you’re pursuing a dream, even though you’re scared and it’s difficult. The way you support and stand by your husband - even when there’s not a whiff of glamour or romance about it. The way you seek to really understand people. The way you’re enjoying your reality even though it’s different than the one you imagined. The way you’re making a beautiful home with a small budget, and not begrudging your neighbor who appears to have more. The way you nourish your family with a meal - their stomachs with the food and their souls with the experience of sitting down together. The way you’re going through the hardest thing you’ve ever been through, but you’re moving forward.

What I mean to say with all this is that I hope we don’t let all the pretty things of the cyber world distract us from the beautiful things of the real world.

love,
em