Andrew Melder

It’s that time of the year again; Christmas Eve. I once again find myself filled with utter gratitude and blessings for the life I have. A wonderful wife who actually seems to love me, kids who are smart, clever and kind, in-laws who I get along with and are able to spend the holidays with us, a secure roof over our heads and so much more.

As such my mind always thinks about those who aren’t as lucky as I am during this period. While I’ve always had people around and a place to live, I’ve had some times in my life where this time of year triggered massive bouts of depression.

Thankfully I’ve never felt so low that I’ve attempted something drastic; but I shudder to think the times where those thoughts started creeping in occasionally. My thoughts are with those who are going through such struggles at this time.

There’s not much more I can say here. Please reach out to anyone, whether its loved ones or specialised services available in your area, if you are feeling the pain this Christmas. I’ll end this with a seasons greeting I heard recently which I liked:

Wishing you all a merry and happy Christmas. And if you are struggling with things right now, may you have a peaceful Christmas.

Over the years I’ve tried numerous attempts to write and blog more. Most have failed as per the usual story, not being consistent and eventually stopping posting all together.

Once again, I find myself wanting to write and create more. Not in a social media quick thoughts and photo posts kinda way (although I will still do that), but really settling down on a topic and writing something that is a bit deeper and a bit more meaningful to me.

How is this attempt any different?

Yes, there is a good chance I might repeat the same mistakes again this time around. I’m not ignorant enough to think that a change of circumstances and mindset listed below are enough to make this attempt last. However, I do believe their are a couple of things on my side this time around.

I’ve taken up journaling

Since the last time I seriously attempted to publish more posts online, I’ve taken up personal journaling. I’m not here to tell you it’s changed my life, but I am fairly consistent with it as it is a great method to help me get through the jumble of thoughts in my own head and work out things; particularly in times of stress or overload.

In a very real way, journaling has been a source of therapy to purge the jumble of thoughts in my brain, make sense of some things and let go of the thoughts that are not helpful or useful to me moving forward.

I see this blog as an extension of my journaling

Occasionally I find myself journaling about a topic or item that I wouldn’t mind diving deeper into, but I haven’t had an avenue to dig deeper into that. Yes I could probably do so in a file in my Logseq and keep it there; but then what. There is something about publishing a post, even if no one reads it, that feels more substantial than simply keeping it in a personal file never to be referred to.

This time, it’s just for me

I’ve been guilty of stat checking on my previous attempts and getting down on the lack of engagement. And while it would be great to get some engagement, it’s not a goal this time around. I’m just doing this for me.

Much like my Mastodon instance (melder.social) is my own way of doing social media; this blog is my own way of doing blogging, for my own satisfaction and benefit.

Why Micro.blog?

The biggest reasons are simplicity and control. My old WordPress blog (andrewmelder.wordpress.com) was ok but the complexity of it seemed overkill for what I need: just a page to write and post. I also like the ability to export all my items easily if I decide Micro.blog doesn’t work for me and their pricing is simple and reasonable for what I want to use it for.

What will I write about?

Anything I want :) I might write about thoughts about topics I’m either interested in or have opinions about, I might write some reviews or recommendations of things I like. What I know is I’m quite keen to get started.

If you would like to take this journey with me, I would gladly enjoy the company. Everything I write will be shared with my Mastodon account (melder.social/@andrew) and also shared possibly via Medium (if cross posting works).