Redesign (or Mid-Blog Crisis)

After a brief mid-life crisis, the blogger in me decided it was time for a redesign of the site. I'll be honest--I'm still getting my feet wet in figuring out the direction for this whole "Hopeful Heretic" thing. But, I wasn't really liking the direction it was going. The title and background image all conveyed the themes of religion and theology. Which, I love both those things. But, that's only one part of me. I also love stories and life, and have a family I want to share about. I was feeling constricted by my own creation. The blog didn't feel personal anymore. I had violated the rules I set out in "On Blogging."

So, for about twelve hours, The Hopeful Heretic sat as a blank slate (literally...there was no background image during that time). After a good night's sleep, I went to work and came up with a completely new design. It's weird how much a background image can affect your mood when trying to come up with blog posts, but I feel like the new design makes the place seem more personal and homey. It better expresses me.

About the background image:
This was a photo my dad took in Yellowstone National Park. That was one of my earlier writing expeditions, as I tried to chronicle every detail of our vacation in my journal in a story-like format. Dad took forever with his camera; I took forever with my notebook and pencil. We made quite a pair.

Yellowstone also marked the first time I ever ventured outside the Oklahoma & neighboring states area. It was an adventure into uncharted territory. We spent a week there and still didn't have time to see everything. That's the way writing is. You could spend your whole life with your pen to the page, and you'll still never uncover all the stories waiting to be written. 

That's the way life is. We could rush from one thing to the next, trying to do as much as we can in one lifetime, but in the end we'd find we only ran ourselves thin. There's no optimum path to take, no checklist to check off. Life doesn't come with step by step instructions because it's meant to be an adventure. Life is meant to be unexpected.

Creation doesn't come in a box. Neither will my writing. I just need to remember that.