August 22, 2009

I had decided not to have a blog because I am a solitary kind of person. I did get a lot of pleasure from my daughter Sylvie's blog, "Mexico Adventures," but I still thought blogging wasn't for me.

Then, recently, I did a number of creative projects: I wrote a wedding ceremony for my nephew Ben and his wife, Leng (and solemnized their wedding, which was incredible); I created a Story Montage for them incorporating a Chinese wedding poem that we used in the ceremony; I worked up my story "Le 8 novembre 1942" to use as an audition for a storytelling event; and I submitted my book of family stories, "Stories We Can't Forget," to a memoir festival for consideration for an event.

I suddenly realized how happy the process of doing these projects made me. The conventional wisdom is that when you are a creative person, the next step is to sell your work -- make a lot of money, publish lots of books. Have the world beat a path to your door.

But I have tried this with my former business, Sandy Story Montage, and now I realize that what I love is the thinking, the ideas, the joy of actually doing the work. Afterwards, I love to share it with others who appreciate it. But doing it for them or persuading them to buy it -- this is not what I want to do.

I also realized that I have completed many projects. My family and friends enjoy them and recognize their value. However, once they are done, there's not much more to talk about. So this blog will focus on the new projects I take on. If people in the outside world read it, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine too. Perhaps I will encounter like-minded souls. In the meantime I have to figure out how to post my photo, some of the work and the other things that seem to be part of blogging. I like the idea of doing something new. And I have been stuck not writing in my journal for a long time.

So, welcome to my blog! Who knows what will emerge?