I feel very busy recently. This past week I had something to do every night after work, which is a tremendous blessing. I want to be involved with my church. I like the extra money that I make with my consulting business, and I enjoy the work that I do with the local non-profits that I work with. But with the 9-5 and the commute and trying to have a meaningful and rewarding life is hard work!

I’m whining. Blogging on top of this is hard, and I see now involves a little discipline. I need to make time to do it, and I haven’t done that successfully. Nor do I really have a focus. So far I have blogged about religion, politics, art, a little food and cooking, and a little personal story. Let’s face it: I’m a dilettante. It’s like the saying goes, I’m a Jill of all trades, mistress of none.

I prefer to say that I have a broad array of interests. This makes it very difficult to know what to blog about. This is the story of my life, I’m afraid. I am interested in so many things, and I have developed a proficiency at some of them. I don’t feel passionate about any one thing, rather, I am passionate about all of of my interests.

I love to cook, but mostly I eat; I practice yoga, but I haven’t adopted the yoga lifestyle entirely, and that makes me feel like a poser; I love music, but I don’t really listen to the radio and I don’t have money to buy CDs or download much new music; I have strong political opinions, but I don’t have the time to be the activist I want to be; I want to learn how to draw, but like everything else, I don’t have the time; I love to read, but I read and absorb so much information for a living that I simply don’t have the mental capacity to read for pleasure most days; I love to write, but I don’t have the energy , time, and focus to produce the kind of quality wordsmithing that I would like; I am passionate about my career in philanthropy, but I work so much I don’t really want to talk about work when I’m not working.

Here are some of the things I considered blogging about within the last month:

1) Nancy Pelosi (how cool is she?)
2) Conservative v. Progressive Christianity (on how we define ourselves in opposition to each other)
3) James Dobson v. Dick Cheney (I never thought I would feel the urge to defend the VP)
4) Mourning the passing of Molly Ivins (we lost yet another important progressive voice when we need her most)
5) Global warming (there has been a major article every day for the last few months on the dire state of the world’s ecological condition and what humans have been doing to get us to this point. And the Bush Administration STILL has their heads in the sand about it).
6) The Super Bowl (no I really don’t care that much about foot ball, but my wife does, and this is the first game that an African American coach will win. The game is going on while I write this, so I don’t know the outcome. Too bad Tony Dungy is such a homophobe. I’m rooting for the Bears, but it’s not looking good).
7) The heated debate I got into with my family over email this week about SpongeBob Squarepants (Don’t ask. We’re all silly).
8) The off-the-hook sermon that Meghan Bean, a totally cute baby dyke from my church, gave last Sunday (Meghan, if you read this, I hope you don’t feel I’m being condescending. As a former baby dyke who has also gone to seminary, I say this with absolute respect and admiration. You rock!).
9) Rev. Lynice Pinkard’s awesome sermon from just this morning (she blew the roof off the church, as usual. I do think I’ll have to blog about this later).
10) Gillian’s freakishly accurate or appropriate horoscopes (really, it’s a little creepy how well they fit what is happening in her life. It’s like the person writing them is stalking her or something).

How can I choose? These are all such important, interesting, and personally meaningful topics for me.

I have read recently that if you want to have a successful blog, you should pick one topic to focus on. Evidently I am having a problem with that. So, is my focus simply the crazy self-absorbed mind of Sarah? Why am I blogging in the first place?

Part of the answer is that I want to network with friends, family, and like-minded folks. Maybe I even want to network with folks who don’t share my views. That could be even more interesting and perhaps fruitful. So far not many people that I know of are actually reading my blog. Perhaps I’ll gain an audience, but that will require that I regularly produce new pieces here. I’m going to have to get better at that.

More than anything, this is a great exercise for me. I’m putting myself out there (so yes, it’s a little self-absorbed), and I do hope to engage in dialogue with some folks (please, send me an email or post a comment!).

Focus or foci, I hope to blog more frequently in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!