cache of awesome: how it starts

I decided to start a tumblr blog because I think I’ll be posting a link on my Facebook page for friends (who don’t have access to my OD) and family (who definitely don’t have access to my OD) to follow along if they’re so inclined. I’ll just be mirroring the posts from here, there. This one is the switch in origin, though. I wrote it with posting on tumblr in mind since you guys already have a pretty good idea of what I’m up to with this.

I’ve also decided to return to public entries for this next year. Most of the time, at least. Exciting, eh?

I hope you all had a most merry Christmas/December 25th! I loves you!

And, without further ado, here is the origin post!

It all started with a couple of tweets from Austin Kleon.*

Okay, it had several starts in several places, but for the sake of brevity and continuity, this is the place where the rubber made the decision to meet the road.

Prior to that decision, I spent a few years not really writing. While embracing the digital age so enthusiastically means that I have a blog that I’ve had for many years, and it also means it’s the place where I’ve cataloged most of my writing in those years, the fact that the last few years’ worth of updates come in at just over 60 posts seems a good indicator I fell off that horse and didn’t try very hard to get back on.

So, back in August of 2010, as I’m realizing the need to just get down to it, Austin Kleon tweets this:

To write, just ask yourself what’s the best thing that happened today: http://bit.ly/csNGx2

Following the link brought me to the quote that has been needling me ever since:

If you ask yourself, ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask yourself, ‘What happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it—you’ve had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that’s what you’re going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know…

-Nicholson Baker

As September was nearing its end and I was contemplating how I was actually going to do something about the quote that would. not. get. out. of. my. head. another tweet from Austin Kleon came along to shed a little more light:

Take 1/2 an hour every day & make something. No matter what. No holidays, no sick days. Don’t stop: http://austinkleon.com/S6

I decided it was time to start making the effort to write again. And I kind of have. Kind of. But I’ve gotten really good at not writing.

So, as most great ideas are, this one was born in the shower. Born while I was puzzling over the two Austin Kleon tweets that would not leave me alone, coupled with the undeniable evidence that I hadn’t yet fully committed to regular writing. I needed a writing project. Having participated in a couple of month-long sprint-like projects before (both early on in the fall off the writing horse, both in an effort to kickstart a return), I realized a short-term, post-a-day scenario wasn’t my ideal. It didn’t work then and I’d only be left with a vague sense of guilt for so many posts in a short time.

One of my favorite things about blogs and blogging, beyond the awesome sense of community it can foster and the ability to delve into insights and facets of life well beyond your own, is that it can also create this sense of accountability. I knew I was going to need this. I also needed something with a marathon scope; a long, but not impossible, duration, with the ability to pace.

Then it came while I was shampooing: combine the two tweets, while heavily modifying the latter: at least one post a week of whatever the best thing was that happened that week or day, ranging from spectacular to seemingly mundane.

So, here it is, a cache of awesome. At least once a week, every week, for a whole year. 52 weeks of the good stuff.

I’m fully expecting to have my writing groove back before the end of the year. And, bonus, I’ll have a collection of awesome of my very own, too!

Please feel free to follow along, or even participate, if you’d like. This isn’t a novel idea, by any means. There are numerous sites and blogs with a similar theme. There have been years upon years with just as many takes on gratitude journals. Not to mention books/movies like Pollyanna.

Basically, what I’m getting to is this, feel free to throw whatever spin on it that tickles your fancy. Maybe it’s a daily Twitter update dedicated to that day’s awesome. Perhaps it’s a commitment to photograph something that makes your heart sing every week. Or maybe you start your own blog with any number of variations on this theme.

But, whatever is, I believe everyone should have their own cache of awesome. Sharing it just makes it even better.

———————-
*I found out about Austin Kleon thanks to his genius Newspaper Blackout. If you’re unfamiliar, do yourself a favor and take a look around. It’s, in a word, awesome!