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For years I blogged on LiveJournal. It was an authentic voice, my foray into writing online. I was never casual with grammar, spelling, etc. even though blogging is a fairly casual sport. Or at least it used to be, when I began blogging, early 2004. I took my writing very seriously. Even while expressing the most flippant of thoughts, the most trivial of experiences… I made sure that I gave it my best. And it all felt very true, very much “in the flow,” very me.
Then I started writing about food here. It was 2010, I believe. By then, I had amassed a veritable folder of favorite food bloggers. The Gluten-free Girl and the Chef (I began reading Shauna before ‘and the Chef’ was added to the blog title), Tea and Cookies, Orangette, One Hot Stove, The Traveler’s Lunchbox, 101 Cookbooks. Each one of the above is a wonderful writer, completely authentic and natural in her writing style. I didn’t ever think of being intimidated by them – how could I? I was writing for the pure fun of it, wasn’t I? Yet, it seemed (and quite often too) that I was unable to translate my natural-real-flowing self into my food blogging. I discovered it on LiveJournal, it came alive and I was ecstatic. But here on The Rich Vegetarian, it felt like I was groping, trying too hard, trying to be witty, casual-smart, what have you.
I sometimes blamed it on the WordPress interface, that it felt very constraining, did not allow me to breathe, the fonts were clunky, blah blah. All excuses, I know.
Training to be an Art of Living instructor, I learned the importance of being vulnerable, authentic, natural. There is no other way to be, and it is the simplest way to be, really. I successfully managed to channel that freedom of spirit into my older blog (even as I brooded over the horrible writer’s block appearances, ached for the effortless flow, celebrated the words as they danced from my mind to the keyboard and onto the screen in sheer poetry)… now I intend to do it for The Rich Vegetarian. Darling, you deserve the real me, nothing less.
