Why did I start this Blog?
I started the Teaching Mom to Fetch blog to retake control of my life. In my twenties, I began running, and at 40 years of age, I completed my first half marathon. I planned to run a full one the following year. The intrusive thoughts, my impulse to ease them, lifted with running. Obsessive-compulsive disorder wasn’t stealing what I was most passionate about for once as it had with writing and other hobbies.
In 2023, I was on my way to healing, running a few miles at a time and hiking at last, when an accident reversed the direction of my life. The changes are now permanent. I’m advised not to run again unless I opt for surgery. I’m not sure what to think.
Since my doctors advised me not to run, I returned to writing. As the words lift me, they also drown me. The critic in my head tells me that my writing is juvenile, my vocabulary minimal, and my education insufficient, unlike the authors I admire, who have graduated from Brown and Columbia. How can I compete?
Then again, the process of writing is not about competing. It’s about sharing your words; I haven’t allowed myself to do so in the past. I was afraid of failure.
The irony is that I tell the children I work with that mistakes are learning opportunities. The only failure is in not trying, and what have I been doing for years? I write, and I don’t share. I fear that my own words aren’t good enough. If I don’t let myself share my work and fear failure every single time, then I fail. I’m not growing, and I’m not the example I pretend to be.
My blog’s origin is my climb out of the well of my head to personal healing. It’s four dogs and three cats leading the way. It’s laughter and getting used to what isn’t easy for me. It’s because I love animal reels and cat memes. It’s exposure-based therapy, and the universe is laughing at me. It’s how I express my gratitude for what I do have.
Thank you to the friend who suggested I read the book Can’t Hurt Me, and thank you to the author, David Goggins, for sharing your own mistakes.
Thank you to #Can’t Hurt Me.
If you are interested, read more about David Goggins and his books at https://davidgoggins.com/book/