Filling My Well

When I was six, I gave up sucking my thumb for Lent. This year I gave up reading blogs until Easter.

I've taken a few self-induced internet breaks. I know it's time when every spare moment is spent scrolling through my Google reader and minutes, sometimes hours, begin slipping past me almost unnoticed. The previous breaks brought clarity in that I realized which corners of the internet were most important to me, whose stories I genuinely missed reading. Then it was easy to whittle down my subscription list.

This time feels a bit different, though. I'm not just missing their stories. It's kind of an abstract feeling I'm having a hard time explaining, even to myself. Does it make sense to say that I'm feeling creatively thirsty?

I often wonder if I could give up blog reading altogether. I suppose I could if I really tried, but then I think of all that might not have been. Recipes that my kitchen would have never known. Books I may never have read (Fred Chappell's "I Am One of You Forever" is one of my top 10 all-time favorites...to think I might never have known it existed!). Ideas I would have never had the pleasure of mulling over. Eye candy I might have missed. Apps I never would have downloaded. (My life without Instagram...unimaginable!)

I stumbled on a quote via Brain Pickings that pretty much sums up my need for daily travel throughout the blogosphere.

"Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It's our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources - ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration - that we've accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways."

In college I felt so alive around all that knowledge. I was fed by stimulating courses and discussions with classmates and professors. After graduation I enjoyed the creative outlet of my own classroom, colleagues, and professional development opportunities. As a stay-at-home-mama, I miss that collaboration that fills my creative well. Thankfully, there are blogs where I can freely drink of innumerable ideas, insights, and knowledge inspiring my creativity in a myriad of directions.

I'll probably need a break from the internet again at some point, although I'm pretty sure it'll never be as permanent as when I was six.