Blogging My Poetry

When I began blogging at Wild Rose Reader in April of 2007, there was something I had to seriously consider: Would it be wise to post my original unpublished poems here? At the time, I remember other writers who blog discussing the subject of putting our work “out there” without getting paid for it. Some thought it would be unwise. Even though I wasn't sure it was the smartest thing to do—I decided to post dozens of my original poems at Wild Rose Reader anyway.

Of the original poems I’ve posted here:

• Some were written for Tricia’s weekly Poetry Stretches at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
• Some were written specifically for posting at Wild Rose Reader.
• Some were written for poetry collections that still remain unpublished.
  
  

TWO QUESTIONS
I asked myself: Would any editors be interested in publishing a poetry collection I had written if some of its poems had already been posted on my blog? Would any anthologist/publisher ever pay me for permission to use any of these poems in anthologies?

I can answer the second question in the affirmative. Earlier this year, a poet/anthologist in the UK asked permission to use a poem I had posted in 2007 at Wild Rose Reader in an anthology that he's compiling. The poem will be included in the book My Cat Is in Love with the Goldfish and Other Loopy Love Poems. The book will be released next February. I also received a request from a well-known poet/anthologist in the United States in August. The anthologist asked if he could use two of my poems in a special project that is being published in conjunction with The Academy of American Poets. Hooray!!!

Once I started posting my original work at Wild Rose Reader I never looked back. I love writing poetry. I enjoy sharing my poetry with kidlit bloggers, poets, writers, teachers, and other visitors who stop by to read it. I like reading the comments people leave for me. After all, I write because I want to share my creative thoughts with others—and once in a while, it actually pays off!

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At Blue Rose Girls, I have a poem by Alexandra Teague titled Language Lessons.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky’s Book Reviews.

Pondering on blogging : struggling with "all or nothing", a faulty thinking pattern or unhelpful thinking pattern that can lead to depression

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your visits, prayers, comments and emails. Please forgive me for my long silence. Thank God that I am better now. I am still learning to pace myself and to manage my health with the various commitments in my life. This is a great challenge for me!

I found that I have great problem drawing boundaries. In whatever I do, I always strive to do my very best to glorify God and to benefit others. So in blogging, I have tried to post as much as I can and visit as many blogs as I can. When I am invited to join a meme, I found myself hard to say "no" and will do as much as I can to join them. I do enjoy some of them very much and very thankful for many new friends. But over time, I tend to get myself burn out!

I do missed all of you very much and greatly appreciate all your comments and emails. But when I think of returning to blogging, it seems overwhelming to me to pick up from where I have left off! To be honest with you, blogging which originally was therapeutic to me, can at times become very stressful to me!

I tend to feel that unless I can do a good job in blogging, I will rather not do it. If I can't write good post, I will not post. If I can't visit all my friends, I will not visit any. So you see, I am struggling hard with "all or nothing" thinking!

I realized that I must learn to manage this better and there are ways I can learn to do so, as I do love blogging and I have many blogging friends who love me and support me, and they also value my friendships and support. I also have some readers who either email or left comments to let me know that my posts have benefited them.

So I have been praying hard in the past months as to whether I should continue blogging. But I really didn't have the confident of maintaining posts and visits and so do not know how and where to start. I am very thankful for my friend, Susan, for writing to me and sharing with me her experiences. So I am praying and thinking of how best to manage my blog in the days ahead. Please pray together with me for God's leadings. Thank you!

This "All or nothing" thinking can also affect my life in many negative ways in terms of my wanting to do my best for every project or don't do them at all. At times I also think that unless I do well in everything I do, I am not being useful or I am then a failure. These are all faulty thinking patterns.

I was re-reading Pastor David P Murray's series of messages on Depression and the Christian. In his third message "The Condition", he talked about some "unhelpful thinking pattern" or "faulty thinking patterns", one of which is the False extremes and how this can affect our thinking of ourselves. You may download this file in PDF format : 3TheCondition.pdf

False extremes : This is a tendency to evaluate our personal qualities in extreme, black or white categories – shades of grey do not exist. This is sometimes called “all-or-nothing thinking”.

He wrote

Perhaps, the most obvious symptoms of depression are the unhelpful patterns of thinking which tend to distort a depressed person’s view of reality in a false and negative way, and so add to the depression or anxiety.

While we often cannot change the providences we have passed through, or are passing through, we can change the way we think about them so as to present to ourselves a more accurate and positive view of our lives, and so lift our spirits.

...continue reading or Download PDF file : 3TheCondition.pdf

Do you find yourself struggling in this way too? How do you cope?

Thank you for stopping by!

Thanks for your encouragement. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

Related Posts:

About depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) and mental illness or mood disorders:
1. About bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness)
2. Myths and Facts on Mental Illness
3. Treatment of bipolar disorder
4. Various pamphlets and articles on bipolar disorder for sufferer and carer
5. Recovery steps for depression and bipolar disorder or manic-depressive illness

For friends and carers:
1. Helping someone with mood disorder
2. Family and Friends' Guide to Recovery from Depression and Bipolar Disorder
3. How Carers and Friends can help

Misc related posts:

1. Trust during rough times
2. Finding meaning in a life with bipolar disorder
3. Mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, etc) is an illness like any other
4. Video on "Depression - A Stubborn Darkness"


My experiences:
1. My Coping Strategies
2. Correcting faulty thinking patterns or Unhelpful thinking patterns that can lead to depression or worsen depression

Blogging - Therapeutic to me and a tool in recovery from depression and coping with bipolar and other challenges in my life

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by!

I am thankful to God for restoring me from a relapse of clinical depression recently. Bipolar disorder is a medical condition with extreme mood swings (manic and depression) which can be treated. I am thankful to God for preserving me through the difficult times of a relapse and strengthening me now.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me!

As I am on the road of recovery, I am learning to pace myself moderately and prayerfully.

I have at one point of time contemplated giving up on blogging as I found myself spending a considerable amount of time writing on my blog and visiting other's blog. I do a lot of this especially when I am hypomanic :-)

Too much blogging is actually mentally very taxing on me though I don't always realized it. My freelance work is also very taxing as I work on the computer most of time. I suspect my relapse of clinical depression recently was due to overstraining at my freelance work plus blogging.

Should I give up blogging? I prayed and asked the Lord for direction.

It has been a joy and privilege for me to be acquainted with many blogging friends who are suffering from depression, bipolar and other physical or mental conditions.

To be able to share and support one another as we seek to learn to understand and manage our conditions has a great impact upon my life. I felt I have grown much over the last half year of blogging through my acquaintance with such dear friends and learning from various people's experiences. I am learning to understand my condition better and to manage it better.

Ever since I joined Word-Filled Wednesday and Thankful Thursday, God has helped me to grow spiritually.

Word-Filled Wednesday (WFW) reminds me of many precious passages from God's Words. God's Words bring comfort, encouragement and direction in my life. It helps me to know more of God's love, His mercies and His sovereignty. Every visit to WFW blogs and post are very encouraging and refreshing. WFW also gives me opportunities to share my passion in photography and God's Words with others. I am thankful to God for many kind friends who allowed me to use the photographs they took and shared them on WFW. Thanks, Amy Deane, for hosting Word-Filled Wednesday and thank God for giving us this precious opportunities to be reminded and encouraged by His Words and beautifies of His creations!

Thankful Thursday (TT) helped me to count my blessings and to be thankful for God's many mercies. I learn to appreciate little things in life and to be thankful for them. Visiting the various TT blogs have strengthened my faith in God as I read of His goodness to His people in spite of whatever difficulties we face in this fallen world. I read of the power of God sustaining and delivering His people from the trials in their life. I read of how thankful they are admist the challenges of life. I am greatly humbled by the many who find reasons to praise and thank God for little things in life which I sometimes overlooked or took for granted. TT has in some way changed my perspective. It has helped me to be a more thankful and happy person despite the bout of depression I experience every now and then, and the many challenges I face in managing bipolar disorder, my work, my family, etc etc. Thanks, Iris, for hosting Thankful Thursday and thank God for using it to encourage us to count our blessings and know more and more of His love!

I am so thankful for your friendships, dear friends and visitors, and the way you and your blogs or your comments have encouraged me. I am greatly humbled by so many of you visiting me and encouraging me. Your prayers and encouragements mean a lot to me. They are especially precious in my recovery process. God has used all of you to provide the love, friendship and support that I needed very much in my recovery. It makes a lot of difference.

I am thankful to God too for making my posts an encouragement to various people. It is my joy and privilege to share with you God's goodness and mercies to me in managing depression, bipolar and other challenges in my life. God is good to me. I am greatly humbled by the knowledge that what I shared has touched some people's life and I thank God for using such a weak vessel so that His grace and glory may shine through!

In life, we will have our portions of ups and downs. Whether it be depression, bipolar or other physical or mental afflictions, or loss of jobs, loss of loved ones, and other difficulties in life, to have the love and support of family and friends is so precious. Thank God that He is with us and thank God that we can be here for one another!

So in other words, Blogging is therapeutic to me. I am encouraged by so many of you. And when God uses me to encourage you in return, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that I can still be useful and contribute despite my infirmities. It helps me to feel useful and challenges me to be more useful, as God enables me.

I have found it a joy to blog. Blogging allows me to share my thoughts and feelings, to verbalise it and to see things more clearly. It has also enriched my life through the vast of information that other bloggers shared through their life, resources they found useful and comfort from God's Words and God's goodness to them.

So here I am, continuing with blogging :-)

But I shall endeavor to pace myself more moderately in order to prevent burn-out and depression, as far as I can. I probably won't be posting on my blog and visiting blogs everyday like what I did before my relapse of clinical depression recently. I have to learn to understand my limitation and work within that boundary. You are in my thoughts and prayers always. I love to visit your blogs but if I am not able to visit you as much as I would like to, I trust you will understand :-)

What about you? Do you enjoy blogging? How has blogging helped you? Or how has blogging changed your life?

Thanks again for stopping by, dear friends and visitors. Your friendship and kindness means a lot to me and I thank God for everyone of you. I pray that God will make me a blessing to you too and that your visit to my blog has been a pleasant and encouraging experience. All praise and glory be to God!

Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm regards,
Nancie
First published on 25 August 2008

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Psalm 73:26

Blogging - Another therapeutic activity for me to cope with depression and bipolar mood swings

Dear Reader,

Do you enjoy blogging? What makes you start your blog? Or if you are a visitor without a blog, what makes you return to read someone's blog? What makes you come back to read my blog?


I thankful to God for enabling me to start this blog around February this year ie. February 2008. I have found blogging to be very therapeutic to me in my coping with my depression and my bipolar mood swings. And thank God this blog also benefits other readers as well.

I write quite regularly, as you can see. Partly because I love writing and it helps me to cope with my depression or manic due to bipolar disorder. Partly also because I desire to share with others my life experiences and God's goodness to me, as well as resources that I have found useful to manage depression and bipolar disorder or Bible verses/sermons/books/other articles I have read and found useful.

Blogging enables me to share my thoughts and feelings and to kind of release them. Sometimes by doing so, I can see things from a different perspective. When others visit my blog and left their comments, they also helped me in many ways. Comments usually bring cheers. Sometimes a short comment left by someone can really make my day :-)

I used to write long emails or letters to friends before I started blogging. Yes, I write letters :-) I am one of those old-fashioned, rare specifies. I know few people in the modern world today write letters. But I do. And I love doing so.

But one complain I often get when I write letters or emails to people and I suspect even when I post on my blog ;-) is that I write too long. I am too long-winded, they said :-) Hmm... I don't quite know how to handle this. I always feel I have so much to say and writing short messages can't quite express how I feel. There was one incident in the past, when I got scolded by a friend for writing long emails to her. She said she is too busy and have no time to read my emails :-( Now I hardly write to my friends as most of them do not reply. I am not sure whether they got the mails, whether they read them or they find them burdensome. Just waiting for a reply from them can sometimes almost drive me crazy! Now I am corresponding only with a handful of friends who haven't got tired of my writings yet :-)

Most of the time, I am sharing my thoughts and feelings and resources on this blog almost daily. And I also visit my blogging friends as often as I can. In the blogging world, I feel accepted and appreciated. Besides this blog which is my personal online diary, I have another blog which is dedicated solely to Resources I have found useful on the internet on managing depression, bipolar plus some personal growth articles. I also have some other hobbies blogs where I share my passion on making bookmarks, homemade crafts and gifts, photography, Christian articles/books and my freelance work. I am active mainly on this blog as I use it as an online journal or diary and almost daily I record my thoughts and feelings here.

Actually, I didn't know what is a blog or what is blogging until quite recently. You might laugh. But when I first started this blog, I still didn't know much about blogging. I just wanted to share my story and useful resources with others. A brother-in-Christ suggested this idea to me. I have a website but hardly anyone seems to be visiting and so I decided to try blogging instead as it is free.

When I first started this blog, I wasn't quite sure what I can or cannot put on my blog. I also wasn't sure what I can or cannot write on others' blog comment. I was a little fearful of "breaking the rules" of blogging.

One of my brothers, Daniel, has been blogging since a few years back and I visited his blog on and off. He is in Malaysia and he shares his life and activities on his blog. He is quite a funny person and so he posts all kinds of things on his blog and I always laughed when I visited his blog. So I read his blog on and off but I have no idea what blogging is really all about.

Recently, when Daniel visited me, he finally gave me the definition for a blog! He said a short and sweet definition for a blog is "An Online Diary". Daniel said my blog is my online diary and I can blog about anything I want. I can write anything that I want to write and share with the public. He reminded me that what I write on my blog is on a public domain. So he said, don't post anything that you don't want others to know ;-)

Daniel also said there is no hard and fast rule on posting comments on others' blogs. The owner of the blogs have every right not to publish any comments if they prefer not to. Same thing for me. I can choose not to publish any comments that I don't wish to.

I thank God for the wonderful experience I have had since I started blogging in February. I have enjoyed sharing my life experiences, God's goodness to me, and the resources I found helpful to me or the Bible verses/books I read with others.

One the greatest blessing I derived from blogging is that I have been able to "meet" many friends through the world of blogging. I have never expected this at all! I am learning new things daily from my blogging friends. I love to read and write. And in some sense, I have found "like-minded" people. My blogging friends are from different parts of the world and they blog about any topics under the sun :-)

I am thankful too for a few Penpals I have "met" through blogging! This is wonderful. I used to have penpals when I was a teenager. And now having penpals again when I am forty++ is really nice :-) Thanks for writing to me, dear Penpals :-)


Here's a big "THANK YOU" to you, dear Reader, who are reading my blog. Thank you for stopping by. I hope what you are reading here on this blog are helping you in some ways.

And a big "THANK YOU" too to all of you, my dear Blogging Friends, for visiting me whenever you can and leaving me kind comments to share your thoughts and feelings with me after you read my posts, or just to let me know you have visited. Thanks to all of you!

And a big "THANK YOU" also to all of you, my dear Penpals, for writing to me and choosing me as you Penpal :-)

One thing I found that is helpful in blogging is to try and remember to leave a comment whenever possible. It seems to bring some encouragement to fellow bloggers to know that what they have posted has helped others or to hear opinions others have. Or maybe just to know someone cares and have visited them. So I hope you don't mind me leaving my comments all over your blogs when I visit your blogs :-)

Oops, here I go again. I think I am getting too long-winded again :-)

Today, I thank God for all of you and for the way He is making my life more colourful through blogging.

Thanks for stopping by. Do leave me a comment, if you can, to share your thoughts and feelings with me! It makes my day :-)


Hope you have a blessed day!

Take care.