Muse: to cogitate, ruminate, think; dream, ponder, contemplate, deliberate.

Good word, huh?  I like it.  I’ve been a “muser” for a long time.  My mom would vouch for that – I was an escape artist when it came to getting out of helping with dinner prep because I was off reading and/or daydreaming somewhere.

While I wasn’t a consistent journal-keeper then, I’ve now been writing down some of my thoughts and dreams for a while.  Not daily, not necessarily even weekly.  My journal habits were actually changed by an assignment from a favorite college professor: think one new, original-to-you thought every day for a week and write them down.  As he knew, it was a tough assignment.  (Don’t believe me?  Try it.)  Now, I don’t live my life consciously striving to be a unique thinker; but that assignment has stuck with me, making me respect the value of fresh thoughts as they come.  Sometimes they are worth fleshing out, remembering, saving.  Some, I think, are worth sharing.

I’ll admit, I’ve been hesitant to add my voice to the cacophony that is the blogosphere.  In fact, I left the date of this first post – automatically generated when I created the blog – in place so you could see how long I have been waffling.  I’m a little bit old-fashioned and a big bit idealistic when it comes to the authority of the written word, and I choke a little to think that the distinction of “published,” the word that used to imply hard work and some measure of expertise, is so cheap these days.  Besides, have you seen how many blogs there are on WordPress alone??  But, here it is, almost one year later.  You can see on which side of the fence I fell off.

I suppose my blog will break all the cardinal rules of successful blogging: stick to one main topic.  Carefully format your blog for optimum user experience.  Promote, promote, promote.  Well, I tried out a few blog themes and I have zero time to create multi-platform social media sharing mechanisms that more closely resemble a complex molecular structure.  And musings are rogue things; they simply will not be confined to one category.

But blog I will, defining success as the moment that my writing brings a bit of encouragement or laughter to your life or maybe inspires a little musing of your own.  Here goes!