How To Do This (?)

See, the thing is, I have stories to tell. And my children keep me in high supply. And I love using my mind to think, write, convey, share, encourage, and bring laughter. And sometimes, my blogging minutes are the most alive I feel all day long.


Like I stop holding my breath. Like it all spills out, like I have found newness and clarity in saying it all.


And so I will continue, because it would be an unspeakable detriment to my spirit if I gave it up.


But in my three years of blogging, I have recently encountered a new challenge: My boys are getting older, and I am publicizing their antics. I write them for the purposes of my own insight, reflection, documentation, and posterity... but sometimes, it means laying my soul bare for the world.


And thereby their souls as well.


This leads me to think carefully: how should I do this?


Some people make money on their blogs. They advertise in appropriate places and bring in the bucks through a passive income of other people's ads and clicking. I've thought on this, because who wouldn't love passive income? But when that is married to the full disclosure of my family in an unprotected, unlimited way that makes me filter my every word or inadvertantly exploit my kids for income? No thanks. Not worth it. Really, not at all.


I want to write unfiltered, with humor and transparency. But I want to guard my family.


I can't run the risk of this whole thing backfiring on all of us, the risk of anyone using these stories against me - or worse, against them.


So, it makes me think. And I don't have answers. I guess when you tell any story at all, you risk the backlash of vulnerability. And when you write it for others to read in the privacy of their own homes, you risk responses that can be taken backwards, sideways, and every way in between. Comparisons for the good of anyone lead to comparisons for the weakness of someone else.


So what am I saying? I'm not sure. Please keep reading my words... and read carefully, I guess.

Because these are my kids we're talking about.