Musings, Tidbits About Us

A New Chapter: Short and Sweet and Scattershot

November 11, 2013


Autumn on Mount Tabor: Portland, Oregon

As I will myself to hold to an ever-fading notion of free time and nimble digits, I keep imagining I’m going to sit and tap on the keyboard with two free hands for more than two minutes.

Truth be told, that may not happen for a long, long time. These very words are appearing first on the screen of my iPhone as my thumb bumbles over iOS buttons.

Autocorrect makes judgments as I go, and I wrestle in a fit of reality vs. lofty goals.

I hold a sleeping baby in my left arm, and my right hand holds the phone, not quite willing to let go of the grasp I have (…had?) on my little corner of the online world.

I love my blog.

I love writing, taking photos, tying up bundles of experience into tidy posts.

But the past (current?) season found me limited to even tinier bundles: flickers of pixels on Instagram, short bursts on Twitter, and photos on Facebook featuring the tiniest bundle of them all, my 8lb 6oz Peach. There was no time for the the 3,000-word, 20-picture collections I enjoyed curating pre-pregnancy.

I let go (mostly) of the blog this past year while I focused on preparing for the arrival of our baby. It was a healthy release, an inversion of last year’s daily play-by-play published for the world to read.

But now, as Ted and I live this adventure of parenthood with little Lucie, I want to practice another form of letting go: celebrating life and releasing myself just a little bit more from perfectionist expectations.

This autumn, instead of wishing away for more free time to write, and instead of not posting at all for fear of less-than-epic posts, I’m experimenting, switching gears.

I’m going for heroic elegaic. (Kidding. Literary joke for my mom.)

No, actually, I’m going to give myself permission to post tiny tidbits instead of belabored features.

I miss the joy of sharing on the blog, and I’ve realized I’d rather happily post a vivid (or not-so) photo and a humble little paragraph than miserably share nothing at all…

I so enjoy catching other writers’ bursts of joy and quick captioned moments. Why not embrace it?

So, here goes a new experiment.

For the next two months I’m going to allow myself freedom to share short and sweet and scattershot.

We’ll see how it goes between now and Christmas.

Some posts may be memories of markets in Thailand, others may be Portland outings with the Peach. I might jump continents and jumble themes, and I’ll more than certainly cringe a few times when I push “publish,” but I’d rather imperfectly share the things that make me smile than perfectly hide behind fears of incomplete masterpieces.

For heaven’s sake. It’s just the internet…right?

xx Bethany


Until the next post, I’ll leave you with a few recent favorites from around the web:

Short & Sweet:
fox {Documenting Delight}
where it all began {Where My Heart Resides}
A Little Longer:
travelogue: weekend in yosemite valley {Hither & Thither}

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22 Comments

  • Reply Anna November 11, 2013 at 10:14 am

    brava!

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:04 am

      Miss you, Anna!

  • Reply ursulamarie November 11, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Yay – I love your blog too! I don’t know how you had the patience to write that post on your phone though…

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:08 am

      Aw, thank you : )

      I have an app I like for typing on the phone…and let’s face it, babies who like to sleep while being held leave us with lots of “idle” time. I just need to do thumb exercises to get more efficient. I *did* transfer the text and add formatting on the computer afterward… It’s like a digital obstacle course to get anything published, haha…

  • Reply nessa November 11, 2013 at 12:53 pm

    Yay! Short and sweet is much better than nothing at all! Looking forward to your writings :)

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:09 am

      Thanks, Nessa! I hope you enjoy the tidbits : ) Sending hugs to New Zealand!

  • Reply Kim Dinan (@RTWsomanyplaces) November 11, 2013 at 12:53 pm

    YES! I’m so glad!! I love your writing and photographs and look forward to the small future glimpses into your world.

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:11 am

      You’re so kind, Kim : ) I’m enjoying catching pieces of your current adventures, too. Bravo on completing the Camino de Santiago!!

  • Reply kathleen November 11, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    GLAD TO HEAR WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:12 am

      Thanks so much for the vote of confidence, Kathleen : )
      xx Bethany

  • Reply Colleen Brynn November 11, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    And yet, this is still so beautifully written.
    Looking forward to what is to come.

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:13 am

      Thank you, Colleen. Me, too. I feel like I’ve finally given myself permission to let new things grow. I’m a little nervous, but it’s exciting to venture into foreign territory…

  • Reply Edna November 12, 2013 at 2:02 am

    Just what I needed to hear! I’m in the middle of the same right now – I have so much I want to share, and I miss hitting ‘publish’, but so little time with a new job and recent upheavals in life…and of course the more I put it off, the more things I want to share that get put into backlog…I’m still struggling to get myself to that point where I can just share snapshots, so good for you! And a belated congratulations on your new addition to the family :)

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 9:18 am

      So nice to hear from you, Edna. Funny how it’s easy for me to read your description and think, “But, yes! Just do it! Just post what you have when you can…it’ll be fun, and we’ll enjoy keeping up with you. No pressure…it’s just great to see snapshots.” And then at the same time, I can feel entirely hesitant to follow my own advice.

      Let’s do it together? I think it helps to just pull the plug on over-the-top expectations, set aside the backlog, and start over. Be encouraged, and I’ll try to keep it up, too : ) xx

  • Reply Olivia November 12, 2013 at 12:24 pm

    Well it is your corner of the Internet, after all, so you can do whatever you please! ;)

    Love seeing your Instagrams over the summer/fall, as you’re just a few weeks behind my sister in this new foreign baby life. :)

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians November 12, 2013 at 11:56 pm

      Right?! Why do I get so hung up on unspoken (well, okay, sometimes spoken) “rules” of blogging? I want to share for the joy of it, not the drudgery. Time to get back to the fun parts.

      I’m glad for Instagram, too. (Though your Hawaii pictures were making me pretty green with envy a while back!) It’d be fun to meet up back around PDX sometime. Ah, the good old days…

  • Reply Happy Days - Expat Edna November 20, 2013 at 1:03 pm

    […] This post by TwoOregonians was kind of the final push — the traveling duo recently welcomed their first child and Bethany wrote about how, in light of new time constraints, she’s decided to switch gears and start posting in snapshot form: […]

  • Reply Notebooks and Scotch Tape, Now on the Blog - twoOregonians November 22, 2013 at 4:07 pm

    […] so, without further ado (*ahem. seems I can do Scattershot, but the I’m not so good at this Short & Sweet thing*), this new edition of Favorite […]

  • Reply Jessica of HolaYessica November 25, 2013 at 7:17 am

    I came here via Expat Enda who quoted you about imperfectly sharing, and I’m so glad I did! I’m really enjoying your blog and looking forward to reading more (short, long, or anything in between).

    Life definitely just does get too busy sometimes…but like you said, it’s just the internet.

    • Reply Bethany ~ twoOregonians December 1, 2013 at 8:47 pm

      Hi Jessica! Thanks so much for visiting my little corner of the world wide web, and thanks for leaving a note. I’m glad that my update resonated with Edna, and I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one that struggles to keep things updated when life gets busy and stories get backlogged. It’s felt good these past few weeks to start getting back into the swing of things. :)

      Pleasure to meet you — and feel free to drop by anytime. I’m off now to take a peek at your blog… xx Bethany

  • Reply Oregonians: If You Haven't Got Your Health... - twoOregonians November 26, 2013 at 10:08 am

    […] Short and Sweet and Scattershot. I’d say we got at least two of the three? xx Bethany […]

  • Reply In the Rear View Mirror: Favorite Trips of 2013 - twoOregonians January 1, 2014 at 10:19 pm

    […] of claiming new chapters, letting go of old, and trying to sort the memories, I share with you a Short and Sweet and Scattershot look in our rear view mirror from our 2013 […]

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