Why

?

I don't know...I suppose there are as many answers as there are people who blog.

My sister, Melissa, who inspires me in many ways, got me started. She had been writing a beautiful blog about her son, Alex, who was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old.

(Alex is 19 now, and has been having seizures for about five years. Melissa's taking a blog hiatus -- a permanent one -- from Alex is all done screaming... to work on her book, and to take care of Alex.)

When Missy told me I should have my own blog, I said, "But what would I write about? My kids don't have autism. My life is a bowl of chairies," intentionally misspelling the word in my mind. And that's how it all began...

Okay. That's not really how it happened. What really happened is that when I said, "What would I write about?" Missy said, "Anything you want."

So I wrote the first post for my Bowl of Chairies on September 12, 2008. I called the post "This Is It." It wasn't, though. It took me a few days to get rolling; but since then, I've done exactly what Missy said -- I've written about anything I want.

For someone like me, who loves to say things, and who hates being told to be quiet, blogging is a great place to expound/expand/complain about things that have currently sparked my passion and/or obsessive tendencies (usually a temporary state).

At times I've questioned why I've maintained The Bowl (as I've just now, right this very moment, decided to lovingly refer to my blog). Since the last few months of 2008, when I wrote nearly every day, I have slacked off dramatically, sometimes going months without "publishing" a post. It wasn't that I couldn't come up with ideas...No, those guys are always running around in my mind, making it difficult for me to focus on things that might (just might) be more important.

It's just that in an occasional -- and uncharacteristic -- burst of introspection, I might ask myself, Who the hell cares, really? Sometimes, I question whether a post should have been published in the first place. (I once even deleted one in a fit of remorse.)

Then yesterday, I read an article in one of my favorite magazines: Real Simple: "5 things worth admitting to." And I thought, These would be great to include in a blog!

But this post is already lengthy enough. Even I'm bored with it, and I'm totally fascinated with myself! So with the hope that I've piqued your curiosity but not worn out my welcome, let me end by saying:

To Be Continued...