"Remember when you used to update the blog?"

Joshua said this to me yesterday and it got me curious. So I checked my blog homepage this morning and found that I hadn't posted to our site since May!

May?! Wow.

I used to be all about the blog. I love blogs. I read a lot of them. Especially ones that my friends write. But it seems these kinds of posts are fading away in the quick-i-ness of Facebook , Twitter, Vine, Instagram and the like (Linkedin? Anyone? Hello? echo, echo, echo...). And you can find me on all of them.

I also took a little time this morning to look back through our old newsletters we used to mail out. Newsletters! That went out in the actual mail! My friend Aaron used to make fun of our ever so creative title, "From the Whitlers". I thought it stated exactly what needed to be said, "This is from us, yes us, the Whitlers".

I've always been a fan of ellipsis

Whatever the form, I've always wanted my communication to be more than information on what we do and what we need. My desire is to give real encouragement to my friends through honest reflection, story telling and creativity. Really, this is the goal of my life, on and offline, over coffee or a meal, in the car, walking or working, writing, posting, singing and preaching. I want to always be reflecting on how we are blessed and seek ways to be a blessing. What more is there?

Here is the first blog post I ever wrote, still available at the first blog site I ever signed up for over at http://cwhitler.diaryland.com


"2004-08-11 - 8:57 a.m.

I got some bad news...I'm really bad at following through with stuff like this. My brother in law challenged me to keep a web journal about how things are going in my life and work for my friends and supporters. So here I am (feeling a little sick today) on a hot Wednesday afternoon begining on this thing that I hope I can see through. I have to...cause I have felt the challenge from Kevin and Aaron. Cause I have also felt the challenge from God and my own heart. And last but not least, in the midst of my argueing with myself about if I have enough time to invest in a web journal, I bought a bottle of Jones Soda a few days ago and in the bottle cap it read, "Start Your Journal." There's no argueing with that. So here it is. Enjoy."

And there is it folks, right there in my first post ever, a statement about how I may not be able to keep a blog going. And, whether it's important or not, I got a little itch to start posting here and other places a bit more. So, just like back in August of '04, we'll see.