I am continuing along with my mini-blog series based on the book 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' with the word 'Heaven' replaced with 'Cyberspace'. The title may have already revealed the third person on my list. Sorry if I ruined the anticipation for some. Either way, please don't stop reading now!
As I was in the process of updating my blog, I did not quite have a clear direction on how to tackle this project. I wanted to revise it, create a general focus, and attract more readers. I continued to read more of Problogger.net and other blogger advice. While I started to get a sense of where I wanted the blog to go, I knew I did not want to give up the haven for my writing mind dump. My spiritual cleansing (or something like that).
I was already wrapped up in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with eHow and Suite 101 and was certain that I needed to maintain a sanctuary where I could write freely and not concern myself with SEO or keywords. In addition, all this talk about having a narrow 'niche' was tap dancing through my mind. Sigh. So, I once again commenced my research.
I came across an article titled, 'Naked Mind: Writing as Spiritual Practice' on the blog, Write to Done. The article was actually written by Mary Jaksch, who is also inspiring and has her own blog called Goodlife Zen. (Maybe the idea of Zen attracts me.)
I loved that article and I knew this blog was going to be a keeper on my Google Reader. I left a comment about how writing cleanses my soul or something pretty cheesy like that. This was the type of blog I was looking for. It provided the answers to my questions and because of it's success, I felt confident I could keep the goals of my blog intact.
Third Person I Met in Cyberspace
The keeper of Write to Done is Leo Babauta who I quickly learned has another blog called Zen Habits. If you read Leo's 'My Story', you will realize that he really is the champion of zen and glancing at his accomplishments will inspire you. Well, it did for me anyhow.
After reading a few of his articles on both of these sites, I actually felt content with the direction of my blog because both Mary and Leo had an obvious passion for writing and that was the inspiration I was looking for. However, I still had this 'niche' concept bouncing around my brain.
At the time, I also had a blog that focuses on teaching and education that I did not write in very often. Gee, I wonder why with two article sites and a blog to maintain, it is amazing I have time to attend to other things in my life, outside of writing. I digress. At that point with all I learned, I realized I could do both.
With my new found inspiration I thought... AHA! The teaching blog, Teaching Life, is where I can author the winning combination of a 'blog with a niche' without giving up my 'blog without a niche'. And still write about something I am compassionate about - education. A nice, happy little niche. Joy has been found by having two outlets to write. Is this what Leo means by Zen?
After all is said and done at this point in my journey I can say, one thing I learned from Leo is compassion and zen habits can lead to a perfect writing niche or no niche if you so desire. The choice really is yours. THAT is ZEN!
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