A Bad Beginning

or muddling in the middle. . .

Since January of 2015 I have been a member of an online bookclub. This group of homeschool moms started a few years before that, but I wasn't ready to join. I loved the idea which was summed up in the name, “Teaching Ourselves for a Change.” Finally, after years of teaching our children, we were going to read the classics, educate ourselves, become more knowledgeable. But I passed because I was afraid. Afraid that the demands of reading for a book club when stifle my own reading. Afraid I wouldn’t have time. Afraid I wouldn’t understand.

The fear that eventually won was the fear of missing something. So 8 years ago as they began the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy I joined. I’m glad I did. I discovered a Russian novel which is one of the best ever written. I discovered I enjoyed the weekly on-line chats with fellow friends. I discovered that I should have joined from the beginning.

It’s once again January and I’m finishing a re-read of Anna Karenina. I am a better reader now than eight years ago. All of the books from book club (we follow Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind), my own personal reading (yes that fear was unfounded), and the books I began reading with a second book club (yes that fear was unrealistic) have strengthened my thinking. Now it is time to improve my writing.

Instead of reviving my neglected blog, I rashly hit the “start now” button in a sub stack email I read this morning. Why not? A new year, a new adventure, and hopefully a new improved ability to write.