Posts Tagged I Wonder
Help me, Rhonda. (and the rest of you, too, please)
Posted by Lotus, aka Sarcastic Mom in Blogging Stuff, Guest Post, I Wonder, Project Support Beauty in Nature on March 2, 2009
Not that long ago, I told you all that I just didn’t have the mojo to write anymore.
And that was true. In fact, for some time now, I haven’t had the mojo to do a lot of things that I used to do. The only thing I’ve really had mojo for is sleeping.
I could sleep for lifetimes.
And while I was half asleep mentally and emotionally, I asked some fabulous bloggers to step up and provide wonderful content for you – and, oh my, they did! I am humbled and amazed at the response I got from those I asked. In fact, there are still guest posts waiting to be published here. I can’t say thank you enough to these wonderful people.
I made a page containing list of past and future guest posters, if you’d like to look them over.
The thing is, lately, I can feel Ms. Mojo poking back around her old stomping grounds. And as I’m waking up slowly from this coma, I’m feeling like things are just not as they should be around here.
I’ve missed PSBN for months. That makes me sad, and I hate it. My blogging schedule has been here, there, and everywhere.
It’s time for me to exert control over mah blawg again. I want to get things back in order so that you don’t come over here feeling like you were heading to a bake sale but ended up in an S&M Bar.
(But don’t think I didn’t see you grinning at the black leather-clad lady holding the whip. Mm-hm. I saw ya. But I won’t tell. Maybe.)
So, I have a handful of plans to get my groove back and have some fun with you guys again. I’d love to get your feedback.
I do this blogging thing for me, but I do it for you, too. If I didn’t, this would all be in a journal in my nightstand. So let me know what you think. 
Please vote on the polls that go along with these questions, and I’d love to have any suggestions/elaborations you’d like to give me in the comments on this post!
PSBN starts back up this coming Monday. Will you post along with me?
The “I Wonder” Series has been dead – should I start it up again?
The BEWB Vote was fun – should we do it again?
Would anyone be intersted in a Bi-Annual Photo Contest with prizes?
I still have guest posts to share with you. But to offer some consistency, I’m thinking of starting a weekly Guest Post Day on Tuesdays called, “Lazy Douche Enablers”
*note: this poll allows you to choose more than one answer. you can also choose “other” and write a comment, but keep it to a few words, or it will get cut off and I won’t be able to see it all
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PS: Thank you so very much to all of you who voted on my question about whether I should try to sell my handmade paper. The response really overwhelmed me – 95% of you chose one of the options that directs me to sell the paper. So many awesome comments and suggestions, too. Thanks so much, guys! I will let you all know when the Etsy Shop is up and running with product. 
I Wonder… best and worst advice you’ve ever received?
Posted by Lotus, aka Sarcastic Mom in I Wonder, Mental/Emotional, Miscarriage on August 21, 2008
In my post last Thursday I shared an email from a friend about remembering to be grateful for the blessings we have in our lives. I do try to practice that on a regular basis – likely, you can see how well I notice the beauty around me in the photographs I have shared with you. Sometimes, though, I get very emotional and wrapped up in myself, worrying about finding a happiness I haven’t even got a definition for – chasing after something imagined that I think I’m supposed to be able to close my hands around to make everything better. In chasing that mentally, I can lose sight of blessings in my immediate view. This is (I believe) what Jenny was warning against. Her email was a reminder not to chase after that imagined thing, but to revel in the beauty your life already holds.
In a past email Jenny sent, she also mentioned that the best thing she did to help her heal was to let herself feel all the emotions that resulted from the heartbreak of her miscarriages. I think that’s important to mention, too. And this applies to any kind of heartache or grief, any emotionally tumultuous experience you might have. I think tempering yourself between these pieces of advice – fully experiencing the pain while still remembering your blessings – is the best place to be.
We can’t push down the painful feelings and just wash, rinse, and repeat the “be grateful for what you have, be grateful for what you have” to ourselves over and over again, as if validating the painful emotions would be a sign that we’re not grateful for what we have. (I know that Jenny understands that, because she shared with me that allowing herself to experience those emotions fully was the only way she’d be sure she would actually really heal in the long run.) But I wanted to make the point here, too. Because I think allowing yourself to be in pain when you are in pain is just as important to remember as consciously taking note of your blessings and being grateful for what you have.
Obviously, I feel that these are good pieces of advice – some of it is Jenny’s (that I agree with) and some of it is my own. And I clearly wouldn’t pass it on to you if I didn’t think it would do someone some good.
So, for today’s installment of “I Wonder…”
What’s the best piece of unsolicited advice you’ve ever gotten?
What’s the worst piece of unsolicited advice you’ve ever gotten?
You can be the man behind my curtain, folks.
Posted by Lotus, aka Sarcastic Mom in Making A Difference on July 30, 2008
Quickly, before I start — I have my second ever article posted at Quirkee.com on Thursday. It’s all about semen, green poop, and horses breeding with humans. You know you don’t want to miss it, right? Hahaha. Please show me some love in comments over there, so they’ll let me stay on! 
To go right to my article, CLICK HERE. I think you have to register to leave me a comment, but I WILL LOVE YOU LONG TIME!
Don’t forget to check out the rest of what Quirkee.com has to offer – there is some really great talent and hilarious stuff over there. I know my readers will appreciate the atmosphere.
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My post from the other day (I wonder about stuff… alot.) has provided what I would say is the most fun I’ve had in my own comments section in a very long time! Of course, it took a lot of time, and I wouldn’t be able to do that with every post, but I’m going to try and do it with all of the “I wonder…” Series posts.
I was very happy to see so many of you come and talk honestly, giving your thoughts and reflections on the questions I posed to you. And I greatly enjoyed responding back to each comment. I have to thank Jennifer at Playgroups Are No Place For Children for talking about the awesome WP Plugin that allows a blog author to respond to a commenter on the post and also emails the response to the original commenter. Excellent!
I wanted to talk about a couple of things related to that post. One is that it is very clear that most of us censor ourselves, to some degree, on our websites. Some of us *cough* do it very little, and there are only a few topics we won’t talk about. And it runs from that all the way to the other extreme where some of us feel they can’t talk about hardly anything they really want to on their own website.
We all need to be able to get this stuff out. We’re writers, damnit! And this is our release! Know what else? If any of us are holding back, we’re also keeping what might be a really beautiful, wonderful, hilarious, or touching post locked inside ourselves. Can I just say that sucks? I want to help release those posts into the world for other people to see. So I’m going to do another project…
I’m planning on launching a blog, an “AnonyBlog,” so to speak. I’ll set it up, advertise it, and moderate it. And everyone is invited to come to me, get registered as an author, and post about whatever they cannot post about on their own website. The only person who will ever know who you are is me, and I will give you a written agreement that I will never disclose your identity, or link it to your piece. You write under a Pseudonym, I schedule your posts for publishing. When comments come in, I moderate them. Anything truly hateful will never see the light of day. In this way, you never have to experience any negative feelings related to your emotional release. We all get to breathe a sigh of relief. And that wonderful post, or just that crazy rant! that was locked up inside of you will finally get to be read by others. And that’s a gift to them.
It will take me some time to flesh everything out and get this launched, but in the meantime, I’d like for you guys to start emailing me if you are interested in posting on this “AnonyBlog.” Let the subject line of your email be “AnonyBlog” and just tell me you’re in. This way, when I’m ready for posts to start being submitted, I can just email all of you who are interested back, and you can get to work.
What do you think? I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty interesting.
The other thing I wanted to say is that I was also very intrigued by the results to the poll from that post. The poll basically asked, Have you ever held something back in comments that you wanted to say HERE?
As of 9:30PM, CST 07/30/08:
52 said, “No, it has never happened.”
20 said, “Yes, but it’s no biggie.”
8 said, “Yes, and I was upset, but not anymore.”
4 said, “Yes, and I’m still upset.”
1 said, “You’re a lazy douche.” (Only 1? Wow!)
thelotuscarroll@gmail.com
I eagerly invite anyone who answered “Yes…” to email me and talk about it. I urge those who said, “Yes, and I was upset, but not anymore.” to email me and tell me what upset them. I would really like the opportunity to learn and grow. And I implore those who said, “Yes, and I’m still upset.” to email me, and let’s talk about what’s happening. In the end, we may have to agree to disagree. But if I’ve slighted anyone, I would really appreciate the opportunity to apologize, perhaps make things right. Clear the air. Get rid of bad feelings. Forge onward.
Can we do that? I really hope so. Because, hell, ‘you could say that I’m a dreamer.’
‘But I’m not the only one.’
Yeah, I know, lists/ugh. I've always been bad at accepting compliments, and this is no different. I was surprised and honored by this - someone thinks I've done a good job. Icky Listness aside, that makes me smile. :-)lotus works
lotus is impressed by her friends
lotus digs
I wonder about things… a lot.
Posted by Lotus, aka Sarcastic Mom in Blogging Stuff, I Wonder, Poll/Question on July 28, 2008
I thought about titling this post, “You could say that I’m a daydreamer.” But it was too tacky, even for me. Also, the word “titling” is really bothering me. All I can think of when I look at it on the screen is, “Is that what one would affectionately call a small breast?”
But I digress. Wait, can you digress before you even start really talking about a thing? *mentally scanning* Okay, yes. Because it was a mental digression. I was thinking of the thing, but then…. oh, nevermind.
Okay. Are you still reading?
I wonder about things constantly. All day long my mind jumps around to different ideas, ponderings, and musings.
And I wonder what other people think about the stuff I think. (And whether I’ll ever be able to write sentences that don’t sound like a 3rd grader composed them.)
It’s kind of why I enjoy writing here. Because I can vomit all that stuff onto the screen and get feedback, suggestions, etc. Sometimes, though… I wonder whether people are thinking things that they really want to say, but are afraid to say. And that makes me sad.
And I don’t mean rude things, or childish things. I’m not talking about being negative or picking fights. Or calling people names… like, oh, “lazy” and “douche,” you know, just for example.
What I mean is really honest commenting, introspective stuff, sharing, discussion. I think I’m craving more of that. Know what I mean? Not that you guys don’t do that, many of you really do, and I appreciate it. In fact, I really appreciate every comment I get. I know I don’t respond to every single one – I certainly wish I had the time to do so, and I do read them all, and respond to what I can. Also, I know that a lot of you read but just don’t have time to comment… or comment, but you don’t have time to get all deep. TOooootally understand that.
I want this to be a place where my readers feel really comfortable saying how they feel. I’d like to be a person you find approachable and fair. So I really welcome you to tell me when you disagree or to call me out when you think I’m wrong (without being rude, because that is entirely possible to do, I swear, and I have a hard time doing it, myself, sometimes, so this has weight, heh).
I will admit that i have a tender heart, and I can be hurt… but I appreciate honesty in such a great way that I don’t even know how to put the right words right here on this part of the page in such a way that you would understand how much I appreciate it. I promise to put my big-girl pants on (and save my silly pants for until I’m done) and take the constructive criticism maturely. (Okay, at least 99% 95% of the time.)
I’m going to start a series here called, “I Wonder” and it’s basically going to be me asking you guys what you think about topics that cross my mind. Sometimes they’ll just be really silly things, and we can all have a good laugh. Sometimes it might be more serious stuff that I just really want to hear your perspectives on.
I invite you to share with me and one another and I really hope you accept that invitation. We talk a lot about building community around the blogosphere. While that is not the only reason I blog, I am also very much into that.
Additionally (but I’d really like an answer to the above in comments):
Has it ever happened to you here? I’m going to add a poll here, so you can answer anonymously. But you can also answer in comments. I just want to get as many honest responses as possible. So, if you’re feedreadin’ and you would like to answer the poll, it’s here! You just can’t see it until you click over.
[I also welcome you to email me at thelotuscarroll@gmail.com if you want to talk about anything further in private. You can do that anytime, by the way. I just request you give me a little time to respond. And, as always, if I don't respond after a few days, nudge me! I may have lost or overlooked your e-mail. I'm very human!]
Thanks, in advance, for sharing yourselves with me. After all, I’m a psychologist at heart, and by degree. I have an inherent interest in people. That’s you!
Answering Comments, Building Community, Constructive Criticism, Daydreamer, Discussion, E-mail, I Wonder, Lazy Douche, Poll/Question, Psychology, questions, You Wonderful People
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