The Beauty of Intention

Hello.

Today I want to share another note with you from my personal journal.

On this winters day, I’m staying warm and keeping myself occupied with the daily hustle and bustle. I’ve continued to slow down and be more intentional with where I put my energy.

Saffy lounges in the image above, contented in her space. She is one of three cats that roam about here. I captured this moment a few years back while in the process of redecorating the sitting room. At that time I was feeling drawn to a lot of boho elements and designs. The wicker pieces have long been must haves as they are easy to move around the house and fitting for a home with pets.

One of the things I most admire about cats is their innate ability to simply relax and enjoy themselves. They walk with such a natural sashay that tells a story of self-satisfaction an an utter lack of regret.

I think I enjoyed that beautifully ornate chair, found at a local thrift, once…maybe twice. I must have envisioned myself sitting there more often with an herbal tea in hand, but that never seemed to materialize.

Too busy, I guess…

Yet, it foreshadowed something for later as I was inspired to begin writing and more importantly-living with an awareness towards being more intentional everyday.

And, this is why…

Many years ago, before the advent of social media and it’s broad influence, I had began to enter the blogosphere. At the time, it represented something we had never had before which was the power to publish our own content at will.

To say I was excited at this prospect was an understatement at the least.

I was happily blogging away and enjoying the entire creative process. Things were growing fast and there were entire blogging communities on a few different platforms which made it very expansive and exciting. It was a moment in time.

Then Instagram came on the scene and everything began to shift.

Suddenly another level of expression was at play. I’d take a picture from my iPhone and instantly add it to my Instagram feed. All my friends were there too and we’d all keep up with who was doing what.

The instant gratification of moving my image from one app to another made me feel a little forlorn about the idea of spending so much time downloading, cropping and editing my own blog posts. Afterall, I could simply say what I wanted over to the side and let’s not forget the hashtags.

So I puttered around with Instagram and while it was satisfying on one level I found that what seemed to be missing in the grand scheme of things was the preservation of my own written expression. Once those boxed images began to move into the cybersphere and I could no longer scroll back far enough  they were just gone.

I could sense myself resisting the mass amount information before me. It was as if the entire world had ended up in one tiny yet massive planet called Instagram.

It’s complicated though. As our world has moved in this direction at such great might, doing something else-anything else feels like going against the wind.

Yet, when I really stepped away and thought deeply about it, I’m doing that very thing.

As a writer and someone who values authentic words, expression, and ideas I am being more intentional than ever with where I put my work. It’s paramount to me that I have ownership and that I’m able to come back to my writings.

While I value what platforms like Instagram have to offer and recognize how amazing our technology is I also strongly believe that there is a human element that can not be replaced.

Moreover, I don’t want to in some way forfeit that power of the human voice which springs from within the heart, mind and spirit. These at their core want to express, be heard, known and validated.

It is who we are on a human level and later part of our humanity as a whole.

That all being said, I think it’s time to pour myself that cup of tea.