One

One year ago today I started Overlap. Sarah had just begun a photo blog and convinced me to blog along with her. My goal was to write everyday for a month. Sar and I held each other accountable and would text each other, "remember to post tonight!"

After a few weeks I started to tell other people about the project.

This idea of overlapping with other people's lives became a theme for my daily life. I had to blog about something each night those first few months so I became intentional about showing up, calling people up and getting more involved than I had been. I'd forgotten how important it is to overlap. I'd forgotten how much joy comes from sharing life with other people.

My camera has become an extra limb. I document things now even more than I did before the blog. People who are around me all the time have gotten used to me taking pictures in the midst of conversation and activity, pausing to text a memorable quote to myself to use later on, and saying, "I've got to blog about this." When I'm around new people I have to put out a disclaimer before I begin taking pictures and explain why I want to capture this seemingly ordinary moment. Sometimes it's awkward. I'm okay with that.

 

I remember sitting in Heather Seller's office once in college. She was trying to make me write about camp and I thought no one would understand the story. "It doesn't matter if they've been there," she told me. "If you as the writer are excited about the story then they will care about reading it." She taught me to write about what I know. She taught me that the everyday interactions and events of my life actually are interesting. She taught me that if I write about camp people will actually care to read it. So for the past year I have continued to write even when I thought no one would care. 

I have been incredibly blessed to find that people are reading and people do care.

In this one year I have become not just a blog writer but an avid blog reader. I'm obsessed with Libby's Don't Waster Your Cancer and read her story from the beginning when Sarah found it. I love that so many of my friends from school and camp have started blogs and now I can read As Life Unfolds, Life In Color, Book Love, Defining Life, Finding Joy, Flip the Tape Deck, Little Things- Big Joy, Live Today Well, My Life (In Lists), Living Today Well, and Young Adventure.
I still prefer face-to-face conversations but have realized that people write about things in greater detail than they explain in conversation. I write about things in far greater detail than I explain them.

In this one year I've discovered it is kind of strange and fun to have people know all sorts of things about my life I've never actually told them. Oh, you knew I mulched all day Saturday? You knew I skyped with all three of the Evoy sisters awhile ago? You already heard about what I did in FBC this week?
I don't find it strange if people read my blog and no I'm not offended if you don't read it very often.

Thank you for reading whether you've read one time, you've made it your homepage, you follow the Facebook links, or you sat down and read through the posts for hours.

Thank you for commenting.

Thank you for texting me when you loved something I wrote.

Thank you for telling me that you've been reading and that I should keep writing.

Thank you for letting me document you when our lives overlapped.

Thank you for getting excited about being on the blog and letting me take your picture.

Thank you for following me.

Thank you for telling me when I spelled something wrong so I can go and fix it.

Thank you for caring about what I write.

Thank you for saying you want to buy the camp book someday.

Thank you for telling your roommate, your friend, your sister to read too.

Thank you for being so interesting, funny, wise, creative, inspiring, kind, generous, helpful, faithful, dependable and giving me so much to write about.