New blogger anxieties

I realize that to write about your blog in your blog is overly self-conscious and creates a sort of "meta-blog" that could become really tiresome. However, what is on my mind is my anxieties about blogging. Will it take up too much of my already limited time? Will it eat into my "real" writing time (writing poetry and fiction)? Will it overly expose me to the world? As a formerly shy person with a shy person very much still inside me, it feels a bit naked to be out here in the "blogosphere." For the moment, it reassures me a bit to know that, as of now, there are NO LINKS to my blog anywhere, because I haven't told anybody about it. However, I have also recently opened a facebook profile, all this in a (perhaps deluded) attempt to enter the 21st century. It's like deciding to go to a really big party where you hardly know anyone.

The Slatted Swing

I am calling this blog "The Slatted Swing" because it was the first title I came up with not already taken. However, I am fond of the title and plan to make it my own. A porch swing is a necessity, even for one living in the upper Midwest. On summer days, the height of luxury is to lie down on your swing with a good book and nod off. Swings have slats to let in the breeze, to allow rainwater to drain, and to make those interesting red lines across your thighs after you've sat on them in shorts. A swing will create a breeze when there is no breeze, create movement when things are static, soothe when you are stressed, and put a baby to sleep in nothing flat. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting on porch swings at both of my grandparents' houses, with the grownups inside talking and the other kids playing in the yard. Me, on the swing, in that dreamy in-between.