6 Small Thoughts Upon The 6th Anniversary Of This Blog

January 24, 2017August 28, 2018 / Ally Bean / 64 Comments

A glimpse into my personal blogging evolution…

1) I like my writing better now than when I started The Spectacled Bean. I’ve learned how to write in a smooth flowing chatty style that is genuine, not dry & academic. I express myself with more attitude, more gratitude, less awkwardness, and a propensity to use goofy big words that I love.

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2) I write more in-depth now on one event or topic or person, instead of glossing over and combining many things into one post like I used to do. I’m more focused, definitely less ditzy.

3) I think of my blog as a newspaper lifestyle column now in which I share my observations, experiences + research, making sense of these things, so that I can start conversations which, I hope, add a bit of love + learning + laughter into the world. I no longer think of this blog as a diary or a variety show or a scrapbook.

4) My posts look prettier now thanks to the instant availability of font sizes, styles, and colors. Plus it’s so much easier to add images and videos now. I sometimes wonder why any of us read any blog considering how text-based and bland they all looked.

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5) I find myself more engaged with my followers now than ever before. Lots of fascinating articulate people have found The Spectacled Bean, and I have found their blogs. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my posts, and thank you for making me part of your lives as well.

6) I’m much mellower now about this whole blogging thing. No more angst over what to write about, little worry about how to write it, still some concern that I’ll make a spelling or grammatical error. But overall, I’m chill– and comfortable in my role as a suburban blogger.

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Well It Goes Like This, I Shredded My Past. Hallelujah!

November 17, 2016 / Ally Bean / 43 Comments

Bifocal glasses, not mine, left on a picnic table in the park. Someone is not reading the fine print today.

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SO LAST WEEK while stuck at home because of this, I decided to go through all the writing ditherage I’ve kept over the years.

Much of it was in boxes in the basement.

Lots of it was spiral notebooks from the late 90s to mid-2003 filled with my handwritten Morning Pages a la The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

I was diligent about my daily 3 page writing practice for a while there.

Just about all the notebooks contained a repetitive selection of whiny, self-absorbed, humdrum scribblings that suggest to me now I was stuck and unhappy during those years.

My inner muse had not caught my attention yet.

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AFTER SAVING THE few good or funny thoughts I’d captured years ago in these notebooks, I had an epiphany. I thanked the writing practice for guiding me to today, then as a way of making my life lighter I shredded these notebooks.

Every last one of them gone.

Thus I’ve freed myself, literally and spiritually, from a bunch of heavy negativity that I’d been saving in boxes in the basement for over a decade.

I tell ‘ya, if you’re feeling burdened by life I recommend shredding outdated thoughts. It may sound corny, but doing so has lifted a weight from me. And I feel free to get on with that which needs to be written now.

Muse, lead the way.

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Of Hummingbirds & Humility

October 27, 2016August 28, 2018 / Ally Bean / 42 Comments

I was dive-bombed by a hummingbird the other morning.

I was wearing a bright pink fleece jacket, sitting outside on our deck in the sunshine, drinking coffee from a red mug.

I was lost in serious thought pondering what I might write about next on this blog, when *flutter, flutter, flutter* a small energetic little bird started diving at me.

I knew that the bird was a hummingbird; there are lots of them in the wooded ravine behind our house.

They flit around. You cannot miss them.

I knew that to this little bird I must look like the biggest darned flower in the land, a doozy of a good find.

I tried to sit still hoping that the little bird would tire of attacking me, but you know what? That little bugger just kept going. The Energizer Bunny should be so determined.

Eventually I decided to *shoo* the hummingbird away from me because I needed to sip my coffee while it was hot to get my brain going. I had important things to think about like the topic of my next blog post.

But of course my brain, that can be a tad self-absorbed and egotistical, was blinding me to the obvious.

That is, the topic of this post was making itself known, quietly, right in front of me. A humble little idea showing me the way, while at the same time reminding me of the basic premise of The Spectacled Bean.

A premise I explain thusly:

be here now;
make sense of what you’re seeing | feeling | experiencing; then
write about it.

In other words, PAY ATTENTION. Life is in the details, and that’s where you’ll find the best stories.

Always.

The Iceberg Illusion: Reflections Upon The Occasion Of My Return To The Blogosphere

September 13, 2016August 28, 2018 / Ally Bean / 38 Comments

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WELL… I’m back.

August turned out to be every bit as hot and humid and hateful as I anticipated it would be. Just a miserable excuse of a month during which I did not do much of anything except think about what I will be doing in the future.

Planning? Or procrastinating? You decide.

Whatevs.

Bottom line? I’m here now with a renewed sense of purpose.

To wit, I’ve decided that blogging gives my weeks a bit of much-needed structure, provides me with a way to process the details of my life, and overall it’s fun.

Plus I’ve concluded that I’m doing something right and helpful here, considering how many people follow me and make the effort to comment. Thank you.

So I’m going to keep on keeping a blog.

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BUT… I’ve also realized that writing a quirky personal blog, such as The Spectacled Bean, has morphed from a hobby into an unpaid part-time job that has a certain work-y-ness to it that you, my gentle readers, don’t see.

Rather like an iceberg. Much going on below the water line to make this blog engrossing and twaddle-y, so to speak.

I’m not complaining, mind you. Just explaining that if I disappear from the blogosphere from time-to-time, it’s not that I don’t love you all to pieces. I do.

It’s just that I’m an introvert who occasionally doesn’t know what to say. About anything. Here.

Or in real life.

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