I may not be very handy with power tools but I am comfortable enough around a keyboard, which is why I undertake all my own website building. I’m not really good at it by any stretch of the imagination and it definitely takes me a few flyovers to get right, but at the end of the day none of my work looks out of place.
So recently, I decided to switch my blog.
I am no longer posting my work on Typepad because I’ve moved to WordPress. I really loved the people at Typepad and I really miss how seamlessly easy it was to do anything and everything. Looking forward however, I didn’t see the point of paying a monthly service fee, since in four years I would be finished with this writing exercise anyway. At the end of 2021 these entries will become dormant. They will come to an end.
But enough of context.
The switch has been anything but smooth.
I have burned too much time searching the internet and watching many somewhat related videos on YouTube on how to properly display my blog. None of it shows me what I need my blog to do, which was so easy to do before.
In a moment of frustration I decided to seek help from an online writing community I am part of. I am very blessed to have access to like minded people at any time of the day, which is why I am so happy to have been alive at the infancy of the internet revolution.
I wrote about my dilemma on Facebook and received several responses right away. Although they were very well meaning and most consoling, none of them helped me do what I needed to get done, but then I read one that got me very angry.
This woman had the nerve to write something totally unrelated and had totally misunderstood me.
It wasn’t hard to get angry at a person I don’t know or will never meet, which wasn’t hard given my state of mind at the time, but then I realized that she actually saved me.
She was the only one who succinctly understood and identified my problem. She was telling me why I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, but my problem was I didn’t want to hear it.
And then it hit me.
She is right. The only way out of this frustrating situation is to forget doing the same thing I did before. I can’t have what I had. I need to build something new. Something that never was. Not because I want to but because going back is not an option, and going forward is none negotiable.
I was very embarrassed but thankfully nobody noticed or knows except for me and now you.
How fascinating!
The person I was so angry with was the same person who had my best interest at heart.
If I could send her flowers I would, but that would be a little creepy.
This got me thinking that maybe there have been other people in my past trying and trying to help me. Trying to help me see something I was missing. Something I didn’t want to see, and I probably responded and treated them in a similar fashion.
This has put me on guard somewhat. I need to distance myself from things a little more and see all angles of things.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the emotions of the moment. So easy to dismiss and not see the truth. So easy to beat and kill the messenger.
I am going to be nicer to the messenger.
I will put away my weapons of mass destruction.
I will make them a tea instead.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Alisa Anton via unsplash.com