To Keep a Balanced Mindset (or: Five Years On)

This week, Somebody’s Miracle turned five years old. On February 16, 2013, I launched this site with a simple post about my travel plans and the open road ahead of me (literally and figuratively). Without any idea of what my future held, I figured it might be nice to have a place to keep track of it all as it unfolded. (A few nudges from friends interested in keeping up helped, too.)

A February birthday means this blog’s birthstone is an amethyst, that vibrant violet stone that evokes calm and is said to bring balance and thoughtfulness to its bearer. My own birthday is in October (opal), but I like the idea of this blog having an identity of its own, separate from the one who fills its pages.

What’s more, it makes sense that this space where I come to share what I’m up to, where I’ve been, how I’m doing and where I’m headed has an origin that, as I read in one overview of the stone and its properties, lends itself towards “keeping a balanced mindset.”

In five short years, I’ve done more—held more jobs, lived in more apartments, traveled to more countries—than many do in a lifetime. Don’t mistake that for any type of bragging on my part; quite the contrary, as my state of constant motion is less by choice than by circumstance. Through it all, even when I disappear from this space for weeks on end, I know I can always pull up a blank page and work out in words whatever it is I’m going through. 

I’m sure it’s that dependability that’s kept me coming back for half a decade (!); without pressure or expectation, the pages here grow in number as I navigate every new adventure and experience. Writing it all out is my way of balancing my thoughts, processing my emotions and capturing my memories. It’s my heart on the page, from a month in India to a long week in Paris; from film reviews to holiday playlists; from adventures in New York to Chicago and everywhere in between.

And it’s you, too. You, who’s reading this and sharing it all with me. When there’s no shortage of ways to connect online, from tweets to photos to memes to gifs, you choose to click through and check out my longform musing, to peek in on what I’m up to, what I have to say. I really appreciate it, and I hope you’ll stick around to see what the next five years bring, too.