"with lots of chevron and mint accents"

My blog is for me.  It is my sacred place for dumping any and everything I have in my brain at the end of a very tiring day.  Some days I don't want to blog, some days I really do and I get so tangled in the blogosphere of all the other perfectly designed, hip, trendy, money-making, perfect-life-crafting blogs out there that I feel "why bother?" then I remember that no matter how hard I try, how still I hold my camera, how hipster my font is, I will never be them, just as easily as they will never be me.  I love my life and I want to share it with those that love me.  Which is why my nearest and dearest know where to find my blog, along with a few wayward readers who found there way here via my wedding photos on Pinterest (hello!).  

About a month ago I deleted my Facebook, a week after that I "fasted" from Instagram.  The main reason for this is that I am facing big changes in my life and I needed as much good karma as possible, whereas these social networks that were created in order to make friendships easily sustainable have instead become a breeding ground for a host of bad thoughts, jealousy and judgment against the people we call our "friends".  We want to show everyone what we ate, what we bought, what we got, where we're going, who we're with and rarely done in the spirit of sharing and more brought on by "so and so was doing such and such, I need to do something too".  I found myself going on several times a day only to roll my eyes at someone's typo's or scoff at the amount of over-compensatory hashtagging because they #dontneedaman and are #aboutthatlife when you know personally that they are #lonely and just #needahug or you see the back and forth one-up of "frenemies".  

My husband shared THIS AWESOME article with me and it took the words right out of my mouth.  We were both community development majors who had had the importance of strong community ties beaten into us regularly.  These social networks are tools and are very useful when they are legitimately used to stay in touch with old friends and family, but when 1/4 of your friends are people you went to high school with but never talked to but you're friends because one of you just wanted to see how they turned out it's disingenuous and while it may not be affecting you they may see the highlights of your life and comparing it to their everyday life and naturally thinking they're falling short.  

I don't know if it's the fact that I'm so far away from my real friends or that I'm just getting older and willing to withstand much less bullshit, but I have come to the realization that those whom I love and hold dear get pictures sent to them directly, when something exciting happens I tell them before I tell all of facebook.  As of now I don't have a Facebook or an Instagram, I have a Pinterest which I use only when I have something specific I'm looking for.  It's time I got rooted and by clearing out the overbearing shrubs whom I allowed to suck up all my sunlight I am now more confident than ever that I will grow in the way that God has intended and be a much happier, gracious and genuine being.