I've been in the blogging game since 2006 back before blogging was cool or everyone and their mother had one.
My friend, Amy first told me about hers and I was inspired. (We were both kids back then! Pictured to the right). Like her, maybe I had things to say too? 
(If you've been keeping up with me since the end of my seminary journey until now, you deserve a prize. Please raise your virtual hand and I'll give you one. Seriously, I will. I'll know you're legit if you can identify the name before I was: "Preacher on the Plaza")
Recently I was reading over some of the earliest posts-- posts I might have previously thought were to simple or not very challenging theologically or mostly a journal of life-- and I missed them.
I missed old school blogging. Blogging that told stories of people's kids or family parties.
Or blogging that documented vacations or life milestones.
Or blogging that wasn't afraid just to say something out of fear of how it might come back to bite your next job search.
Or blogging that only your closest friends and maybe a rare stranger that soon turned into a friend read. A blogger and friend tweeted something along these lines recently too. And got me thinking . . .
Where did the old school blogging go?
For me, I am a different kind blogger now.
I'm a blogger who is the wife of a guy who runs a global non-profit and though I say that my opinions expressed are my own, I have to remember that what I write ultimately in some way reflects back on him.
I'm a blogger who believes in the power of online community-- I write not just for friends but for those of you who I don't know in person (but maybe one day I will!).
I'm a blogger who believes in the platform of a site like this: a platform to challenge the religious norm, to be a voice when social crisis plagues our world, and to speak to those who I might never have a chance to sit down with a cup of tea with but in whom we might have a lot to learn from each other.
I'm a blogger who can't live without a blog. Though it began as a hobby and something fun to share with family and friends, over the years, I've learned that writing in a public space like this is not only important to my personal processing but to those who might want to enter into the conversation with me. Many of you have told me over the years that you are reading and thinking with me. And for this I'm so grateful.
And while I long for the days of simpler posts of what I did last weekend or what is my favorite ice cream, I can't write like that anymore.
These past years there have been some great challenges, challenges that have put me face to face with what calling, vocation and faith in deeper ways than I've ever known.
The more I grow in my understanding of God (or the mystery thereof) and how the world works, I know I have to keep wrestling with the big questions. It's just who I am. It is why I blog. (Though not to be discouraging on others who write for other reasons, of course).
My hope is that as you stop by from time to time you'll keep reading, keep commenting, keep pushing me toward new ways of thinking about life in this world.
While I might miss the ease of old school blogging, I know where I land on the other side will keep taking me to the next place I need to go. 2013 will soon be old school too!
