New Chapters: The Future of a Blog

 In my last post, I provided a brief history of this blog and roughly twelve reasons (excuses) for why my commitment to writing reflections dropped off. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons (not an excuse) was a massive case of writer's block brought on by ridiculous expectations. See the truth is when it comes to my writing and reflections I have a fairly low level of confidence. Sure there are certain pieces that I think are amazing, certain research papers from school that I take a particular level of pride in, but all in all, over the years I've found myself questioning why I bother putting thoughts to paper (even electronic paper). I found myself thinking that if there wasn't anything truly uniquely profound or new that I was sharing what was the point of sharing at all. 

Fortunately, over the years I have had a number of supportive friends who have always encouraged my writing. Yet never the less I wondered what was the purpose of me writing these blogs posing questions if I couldn't answer them with some kind of brilliance. 

In December I was reminded by a friend that sometimes what can be most appreciated is asking the questions, truly sitting with them, and letting them bother me. In a more recent conversation with that same friend, I was talking with them about a Dominican Motto that I have had in my email signature since (I think February) 2014. This motto "Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere" "To contemplate and share with others the fruits of our contemplation" has been something I have personally identified with deeply since I spent time visiting the Dominican Priory in St. Louis in February of 2014. During this most recent conversation, I was giving myself a hard time saying I am exceptionally good at the first half of the motto. I greatly enjoy sitting and contemplating. Or as I often say with other friends I greatly enjoy sitting and pondering Something I do so much my friend Brian and I as well as my friend Kara and I have our own inside jokes (mostly just them making fun of me) about me sitting around always pondering. 

With this motto in mind and more specifically with a desire to be more committed to the second half, not just the first my goal for this blog, the new about me section, is to share fruits. The fruits may not always be picture-perfect, they may not be polished and brilliant, and at times it may be nothing more than sharing some questions that have been bothering me or explaining insights into how I think about things and go about my day-to-day existence. 

So if you're ever wondering what has Mike been thinking about lately hopefully you won't need to look too much further than this blog. 

My home office/study/almost library aka one of my favorite views when pondering.