on the NEW blog! from her fridays: a journey of…everything

Hi there! We’re over at Love Your Way now, we’ll keep posting for a week or so here, but we hope you’ll do us the pleasure of joining us in our new space.

Image from Wide Open Spaces

Before I tell you what I really want to tell you, a little backstory. My 2008 New Year’s resolution (and the only one I’ve ever actually completed) was to read a book every two weeks for the whole year. Gave me some time in between to read quickly or take something slower. I read some of the most amazing books I’ve ever read during that time: Traveling Mercies and Bird by Bird, both by Anne Lamott, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (which I could easily credit as the book that re-sparked my interest in reading), White Oleander by Janet Finch (still one of my favorites) and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, to name my favorites. All highly recommended.

I am a huge fan of reading. I love everything about books. I refuse to get an electronic reader because I love to mark up my books until they’re almost unreadable with thoughts sparked from another writer’s words.

I started writing what I was convinced would be my first published novel at age nine. I was going to be an author, I was absolutely certain of it. The childlike part of me doesn’t feel silly at all saying I still will be. The realistic Mrs. Hyde, however, is spouting off uncertainty because of the online publishing world and its cannibalization of the print publishing world. It would mean almost nothing to me to print an “e-book,” whatever the hell that means. That’s not to discredit e-books, but to say that I personally would feel incredibly anti-climactic being published online after putting years of work into a book.

That being said, Isaiah and I are writing a book, have been for almost three years. I am also writing a book, which has recently turned into an adult coffee-table book complete with Isaiah’s fantastic illustrations. The book we’re writing together is about a couple’s journey represented by music…which may seem narcissistic as it’s mostly modeled after us…but I believe I’ve heard the phrase “write what you know” more times than I care to recount, so we’ll go with that.

The book I’ve written is a collection of interactions with strangers and odd conversations…I’m not sure how loved it would be by anyone but me, but I got some outstandingly sweet comments on it from a favorite professor of mine who turned 180+ pages around to me by the next morning with comments galore on each page. “I couldn’t put it down,” he said. I cried. I’m sure you’re having a hard time believing that I cry as rarely as I claim, but I think I may just be recounting some of the more personal moments in my recent years…so you can continue on.

Anyway, the other part of this journey that has intertwined throughout the last eight years is music. Isaiah with his rock-band (for more than eight years) and I with my solo gigs and occasional features and collaborations. We’ll talk about that more on another day. The main thing is this: Our journey has so many roads. Music, design, art, writing, photography, owning a business, movies and all the ways we’re sure we can make it. We have to narrow down. The renaissance men and women of the world often weren’t known for anything but being renaissance men/women unless they committed to one aspect. They were later mentioned, “Oh, and did you know he/she did __________ too?!”

You can’t dedicate yourselves equally to all parts of what interest you, or even more painful to let go, what you’re good at. There’s an excellent book I got for my high school graduation gift called The Dip by Seth Godin. It’s one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten (hint hint with the holidays coming up). The books tagline reads A little book that tells you when to quit (and when to stick). It’s focus is to understand when it’s time to let things go and focus on things that have real potential for you.

What that means in terms of us and our (too) many endeavors? We’ll see.

I also think it’s notable (meaning I’m jumping up and down) to say that Isaiah was just accepted into school yesterday. He’ll be a full-time design student as of January. Well this just about sums it up, doesn’t it?

Image from We Heart It

I couldn’t be more proud. What do you think about over-committing and being too enthusiastic about too many different options?

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