I am not unique in facing a new year and feeling suddenly inspired to do more! and better! and every day!, so here I am again, starting a blog.

The idea came to me as clicked through to the Rev. Molly Baskette’s tumblr the other day. She is starting the new year with a series she calls “Apology for My Liberal Politics.” And in the half a second it took to load her first post in the series, the thought flashed: I should write again.

I mentioned it to James (he’s my husband), and he began to ask me questions: “Jot down some features you’d like in a Google doc. Themes, social media, image galleries…do you want it magazine-style or more like a personal blog? What sites do you like? What features do you like about those sites?”

And I was like, “Uh, can’t you just throw a generic WordPress theme on a domain and let me type in it?”

But I married him for a reason, and he’s right. I should think about what I’m doing here.

Which was enough to make me think I shouldn’t bother. I’m not so egotistical as to think the world needs another blogger, shouting about my life into the cavern of the Internet.

But then I went to church today. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to get much out of church today. It is the first Sunday of our pastor’s mini-sabbatical, so we have a fill-in preacher. But I went, because it’s my church, and because it’s important to keep consistant for my kids, and because I couldn’t stand another day of post-holiday cabin fever sitting around the house with a 5-year-old and an 11-month-old.

And the stand-in preacher said something that resonated with me: Hiding your talent isn’t modesty; it’s a form of stinginess. If you truly don’t know what your talent is, ask. And then use it. Because if we are going to build a more loving world, we are going to need everybody’s best to do it.

Well, my talent is writing and editing and communicating. And I’ve been a bit stingy with it of late.

It feels very hubristic to think that anything I can write will make a difference in the world, but at the same time, it kinda feels like writing might just be my best shot at it.

I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing here (sorry, James), but I’m going to start trying to figure it out. I want to be honest, I want to talk about struggles and successes, I want to talk about right and wrong, I want to talk about the kind of world I want to leave my children. So here I go.