It feels like a few lifetimes since I last had a blog. But I remember – vividly – how much I loved it… I had just moved to Cape Town (10 years ago this year!) and was sharing a flat in the wrong part of the City Bowl, working my first job as features writer at Real Simple, motoring around town on a scooter I didn’t really know how to drive. My novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, was about to be published and life felt suffused with possibility and magic. I remember scooting into the autumn evenings exploring the city, being amazed how many bakeries there were in Cape Town and feeling so very lucky that I got to write for a living… And that anyone cared enough to read it.
And then, as so often happens with blogs, life got busy. Real busy. Later that year I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes so that threw a spanner in the works… I decided to go freelance and life was full of writing of all kinds. Blogging started seeming like a chore, like one more thing on my To Do List. To be fair, though, it was never the writing that was a chore, but all the collateral – having to find images, and link them, and make sure my posts were properly categorized and SEO’d and all that jazz.
So this time, I’m not doing any of that. I will write about what I love: things I find inspiring (in the form of awesome articles I’ve read or things I’ve been thinking about or ways to live my best life), health (because I care deeply about living well with a chronic condition) and being a mom (because that’s what so much of my every day is). Inspiring health mom, that’s my shtick. And I’m afraid there will be no pics, because honestly who has the time to scour Google for cute pics and not get horribly sidelined and lost in the web of time wasting? So no pics, no cute memes (unless they’re irresistible), no GIFs because I don’t know where to find them.
What I can offer is authenticity. I can offer a slice of what this life looks like to me, what I’m struggling with, what I’m delighted by, where I turn to for inspiration. I am so delighted to be writing for the sheer joy of writing that even if nobody reads this but my mom (hi mom!) I am totally fine with that.
So! An update. I have now lived in Cape Town for a decade. Sheesh. I no longer live in the lovely City Bowl but in equally lovely Hout Bay where we have a house a 5 minute walk from the beach, with idyllic mountain views and a garden. It also gets filled with beach sand any time the wind blows (ie all summer) and the grass has lawn crickets and the poor garden gets neglected in favour of the small human beings inside the house but, you know. Such is life. Everything has a season.
I am married to Mark, who is my favourite person in the world and simultaneously knows how to irritate me more than anyone else on earth. And we have two children (what?! Sidenote: a friend recently introduced me as married with two kids and I was like, who? That can’t be me!)
Arthur is 2.5 years old this week and he is the most awesome little guy I have ever met. He is also a holy terror because he’s a toddler. Ella is nearly 4 months old and she is the sweetest little girl the world has ever seen, except when she doesn’t want to sleep. We are in the thick of parenting: all day, every day. Apparently it eases as the kids get older but honestly, I can’t imagine it. The joy is unparalleled, the frustration is intense. I have discovered depths of patience in me I never thought possible.
And I guess that’s also what I want to do here: chronicle some of the daily joys and frustrations of early parenthood. I have a ‘One Line A Day’ journal that I’ve been writing since Arthur was born, but one line is really short to capture a whole day… This year my New Year’s Resolution is to notice the slices of joy in the everyday – those small moments that feel so sweet. I’d like to share some of those here.
So, let’s get to it! I wonder what exciting things are going to happen to me on this blog?
Be First to Comment