How to Begin

            I wondered how to begin my first blog post.  The word how being the powerful, stand-out word within my thoughts related to this action.  How to begin.  Perhaps the way to begin anything: Pick a Starting Place, and then Begin.

            “But how?” came the follow-up thought.  And again, there’s that word.  As someone who prides myself on being able to utilize words effectively, picking out the ones that match a situation to convey emotions, thoughts, reflective statements; the words that get someone to think.  The thing is, it’s easy to determine what to do.  To set the goal; decide on the direction.  It’s another thing entirely to determine how to proceed.

            So, I pick a starting point.  And then begin…

            I choose to begin with an exploration of the word how.  You see, I was never really very skilled at writing out “how to” papers we had to do in middle school.  My directions for how to make a PB&J always seemed to end up with a very wonky sandwich.  Of course, this was also before peanut butter became a no-no for school lunches and school projects.  Understandably so; anaphylaxis and food allergies are no joke.  But I digress.

            How.  A three-letter, single syllable word that really packs a punch.  When we talk about how we are talking about the way in which we do things.  The directions for tasks simple to complex.  The ways in which we think, define our thoughts, and take action upon them.  How then becomes the “stuff of life”- so to speak.  It’s the day-to-day activities of daily living and it’s the supports we put in place to help children learn how to accomplish these things.  It’s deciding to learn a new language and locating a way to learn about verb tenses and grammar.  How is the setting of a goal and the steps we take to reach that goal.  This blog becomes a great example of just that!

            I enjoy writing- the crafting of sentences and allowing my creativity to shine.  Writing provides a way to share with others yes, but it’s also a very personal act of self-discovery.  This blog has been an idea in my brain for a while.  Along with the website that accompanies it or that it accompanies, depending on which seems to be the most important part on any given day.  A place to share and to offer another avenue for people to grow in wellness.  The tagline for my practice has been “creative solutions for wellness” since I opened in the fall of 2014.  As I began to craft the website and its pages, starting a blog was a dream-come-true, no-real-need-to-think-about-it type of action.  And the name fell into place.  Here was a location to really explore creative solutions for wellness.  How that is going to be done is a woven tapestry of ideas, single threads at a time coming together to form a whole.  And just like that, a how is born.