Beginning

Today I decided to stick my toe into the blog waters. The first time I considered journaling via a blog, I quickly dumped the idea. After all, who would read my blog? Why would I want to write my thoughts and describe the events of my life for others? Today, the light came on. I am doing this for me, but with hope that I can share.

Several years ago I began a journal I kept in my computer's document file. Somehow, the experience left me feeling empty, like talking to a dead phone line. I don't think that process aided my writing or helped me gain important insight into other areas of my life. I was talking to nothing. Mostly that journal just sucked time. Maybe if I returned to that aborted effort today, I would feel differently about it. But now, I have the convenience of a blog with at least some possibility that I will have feedback from others. I like the idea of having a conversation.

Will this blog help me gain insight? I don't know. Nor do I know if it will free me to be more creative in my art, encourage me to write, or allow me to communicate with others of like interests. But today I feel the potential is there for all of that. At least for today I want to give this blog a try. Talking to my blog seems far better that sharing with a cold, non-responsive document file.

I've titled my blog "Gaga's Journey." My grandson, whom I will call Buddy on this blog, wouldn't say the name we had chosen for him to call me. As I tutored him, I repeatedly stressed the G sound. "Guh, guh," I said over and over again. The next day when my son-in-law dropped Buddy off at my house, he said, "I hope you want to be called Gaga." So Gaga I am. Coincidentally - or maybe not - my mother had been called Gaga by her brothers and some of her grandchildren. But he had heard no one call her that. Go figure. I wear the name proudly, now.

I am quickly approaching what I have always thought to be Old Age. I will be sixty nine in a few weeks. That number gives me cause to pause and consider what I am doing with my time. Am I spending it well? Can I be more industrious? Can I be more creative? Will I paint a masterpiece? Will I write something I can feel proud of? Am I being the best grandmother, mother, wife, person I can be. To steal from Oprah, am I living my best life? This blog will describe my journey. Will you join me?