To Share or Not to Share

The whole point of a blog is to share with the world the goings on in my life. I started out to document our journey to Ethiopia and to share photos of our cute kids. I have tried to keep my comments honest, but I do know that some items are too private to detail in front of the world. I don't want to be a blog that only shares how great my children are. In our house, there is yelling. We argue. We have stinky morning breath and end more than one day really needing a bath and a glass of Pinot. Do my kids always get along? Nope. Do I love them no matter what? Yes. Do I like them every day? Not always.

I used to write journals. I'd spend time as I fell asleep documenting my day, my thoughts, creative writing pieces, etc. Well, since I started blogging, I stopped writing in journals. That hasn't been too much of a problem, I think, until now.

This past week, I had a heated discussion with someone in my world. For privacy reasons, I won't share any part of it. I will share, however, that I felt trapped by the thoughts in my head. I am so used to writing either blog posts or status updates on Facebook to vent about the interactions in my life. However, because of the public nature of those places, I couldn't say a word, or wouldn't say a word. I don't think everyone exercises such restraint. I heard a story from a friend of a friend recently. At one point in her life, she found out she was having a baby. A surprise pregnancy, since her youngest was already in school. She wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing, since she had hoped for a baby for the past 4 years and it never happened. Anyway, a friend of hers asked her why she was blue. (This friend happened to be struggling with infertility.) She asked if she was allowed to be totally honest and her friend said yes (knowing she was pregnant). Well, she explained that this joyous surprise had caught her off guard, etc. A little while later, friends husband POSTS ON FACEBOOK his disdain for his wife's friend who would be so callous. The baby is nearly two and they haven't spoken since that fateful discussion. Should she have vented to her friend who was struggling, maybe not. However, to blast her on FB seems cowardly to me.

Do I wish I could post about the words that were exchanged? Absolutely! It would be great to get a gut check on what happened to see what I could learn about the interaction, maybe do things differently next time. Do I know this is not the place for those thoughts? Of course.

So, if you are reading this, and wondering why things have been a bit quiet, just know lots of "stuff" is going on, it just isn't stuff I can share.