Boring Basics

My name is Kimberly and I live in Durham, NC and attend a wonderful Episcopal church there. Please don't use that information to stalk and kill me because I have a lot of things to do that involve not being dead. Thank you. Other ways to describe myself besides Episcopalian are: ecologist-in-training, geek, liberal, and introvert – just so you have some idea what you're in for. For the purposes of this blog, the Episcopalian is going to be the most salient trait.

I'm doing this blog because I hate to meditate. No, it's not going to be a blog against meditation. People who get something out of meditation should definitely keep doing it. But for me, it's like chewing rocks. I get nothing out of it and I hate trying to be still and empty my mind when my mind has lots of stuff it wants to be doing. And yes, I know it helps you focus and lowers your blood pressure and all sorts of other wonderful things. Which is all the more reason why those who find it tolerable should certainly stick with it if they want to. But no, I don't meditate, and I'm not much good at prayer either – not in the set-time, disciplined sort of way. Sooner or later, I'll quit because there's something more interesting to do.

But I do think about religious/spiritual stuff a lot, and I write, so it occurred to me that there's no reason that can't be my spiritual practice. This blog exists as a way for me to do so in some sort of a disciplined way, and also as a place for me to put my thoughts out in the world – I've never been much of one for writing just for myself. I'm going to try to post at least once a week, more frequently when I can. There will probably be a flurry of postings early on because it's a new project and I'm excited. I'm also writing this about a week before I intend to actually start the blog – setting up a backlog of postings so that I don't vanish when life gets crazy.

For my own reference: my privacy practices are going to be like this – I'll identify places as far as what kind of place they are in what city (church in Durham, university in Cleveland), myself by first name, and anyone else by relationship to me (my aunt, my friend, one of the clergy at my church) or just by a letter (N, M, J, etc). There are only 26 letters and I know more than 26 people, so letters may be reused at some point. That's okay – I'll mostly just be using them when I'm quoting someone who made me think.

If people decide to comment, I will first of all be really excited, and secondly moderate on a very simple basis – stuff that's totally irrelevant will be deleted (buy my chickens, lemons suck, etc), but if you disagree with me, that's fine, though again if your disagreements are totally irrelevant (strings of swear words and misspellings with no content), they'll still be deleted. And also anything that is threatening or personally identifies someone else. If you decide to personally identify yourself that's fine – but for other people, stick to first names at most.

I'm also going to limit myself to writing for no more than an hour for any given post. This is partly so I don't get totally sidetracked or neglect other things I have to do, and partly to avoid posts so long that no one will read them, which might still be an issue.

Finally, the general disclaimer, so that I only have to say it once: I have no formal religious training. I am not a clergy member. All I have are my own opinions, based on my own reasoning and experience. If you find something I say helpful, please use it. If you find it unhelpful, don't use it. If you disagree and would like to discuss it, feel free to use the comments. If you find that reading my thoughts is harmful to you in any way (emotional state, faith, etc) than please don't read them.

I think that's all for today – next post will have actual content, I promise!