Picking a topic to write about has been easy these past four
years. Ridiculously easy!
I have a new SCORE client who writes a blog and needs help
on writing content on a continuous basis. She is having trouble focusing and
coming up with topics that are easily digested in a blog’s daily post. Maybe
500 words, or perhaps 700? What’s the right length for one day’s post? And then
again, how does this post lead to others in a long stream of future content?
My blog does not focus on one topic. It is rather a
commentary on the daily issues of our time. Each of those issues is infinite
when you pause to think about it. And another aspect of this is each topic
pulls at different aspects of our personal lives, too.
Think about it. Some topics tickle my curiosity and
intellectual probing. Another topic goes directly to the heart – caring and
reaching out, healing others, making them feel better – that sort of thing.
This attraction is rewarding. It comforts me with the reminder that we human
beings do care about others when we don’t feel threatened ourselves.
And the soul. The most innermost part of our being where few
are allowed to enter. This is the inner sanctum in which we think about the
formation of our own secret life, the wonder about meaning, self worth,
aspirations to fill a lifetime with joy and relevance. Are we good, or wounded,
or hale and hardy? Are we adventuresome? What about our ability to care for
anything outside of ourselves? Isn’t that what love is all about? If we love we
are able to extend outside our minds and skin?
But if we receive love, feel love, what then does that say
about our innermost sanctum?
Heart, mind and soul – these three are the well springs of
many topics to explore. And that is what this blog does. Oh, I know! I am not
always in balance and spring from one topic to the next. And then there are
some topics that so disturb me that I rant on and on for days. Sorry about that! I really don’t want to burden you. Yet I find
it necessary to spill such beans because they bother me if I leave them stewing
inside for too long.
The beauty of an active mind – yours, mine and theirs – is
that we have much to think about. We also have much to make of things. Not all
topics act on us; we act on the topics, too. We are both actors and audience on
the stage of life. I’m not the first or last person to pen that phrase. Nothing
original here. Just the reminder that life is a mystery for each of us to
solve. And thus the cornucopia of blog topics appear!
It really isn’t magic.
I once had a group of parishioners ask me how I came up with
ideas for sermons (I have guest preached a few times; I’m not a minister!).
Truly my answer to them is simple: I don’t come up with the topics; they raise
themselves to be worked.
Working them is my job. I have found that allowing natural
human emotions and feelings to percolate on any topic provides abundant
thoughts on just about any subject. So writing a sermon or writing a
blog, knowing what’s important at any particular moment spurs us on to think,
feel and search. Once done the fingers
dance over the keyboard and you witness the result. Magic? Not even close.
It’s not only logic, but its like math and that’s close to
physics. As my kids would chime in – It’s basic physics, guys. Just basic
physics!
October 7, 2015
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