Return

How does one begin chronicling again, after so long away?

It's a question I don't have a ready answer to, but perhaps I will by the time I finish writing this.

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So, I'm back, with firm plans to post as consistently as a very busy work and family life allow. I've been contemplating this return for quite a while, and the reason it's been tricky is because of the amount that has happened since my last substantial post from a year and almost three months ago. Furthermore, I knew I wanted to expand my scope and reader-ly audience to include other librarians doing similar daily work to mine, which meant conceiving of the blog in a new way. However, I was also determined not to leave behind certain things about my writing style from Librarian in the Kliros including the sharing of personal stories in order to better perceive cosmos in the chaos we so often find ourselves in.

And so, the result is an attempt to defy all the well-established rules of "what makes a successful blog," that is, the general encouragement to choose to focus either on personal matters (family, faith, etc.) or professional ones. I'm determined to focus on both. *shrug* It's my blog.

The more I reflected on this, the more I realized it is precisely because I make my library work personal that I feel I do a decent job at it, which in and of itself is worth blogging about. And I have so much to share about my work life, and so much to share about my home life, that I think I'm ready to dive back into regular blogging again, about both. But this is going to be both a professional space as well as a personal one. I'm considering utilizing labels to distinguish what topics posts are primarily about (I am a librarian, after all), but we'll see what shape that takes moving forward. For now though, some necessary housekeeping, mostly for the sake of my past subscribers (all 10 or so of you *waves*):

• I imported most of my posts from Librarian in the Kliros (new nickname: LitK) to this new blog. I have added the label "Librarian in the Kliros" to these in addition to the labels they had before, which may or may not stick around depending on what categories develop over time. 
• LitK will continue to exist in retirement, mostly because I didn't update my imported posts in the places where I link back to older posts of mine. For the time being, those links will take you to LitK posts, though someday I may do the maintenance required to update those links on my imported posts here.
• If you subscribed to LitK, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd update your subscription to this new blog instead. It's my new home in the blogging world, and I'd love to remain in touch with all of you. 

I'm going to reign this post in for now, even though there are so many questions I'm leaving unanswered for many of you. I suspect a few may notice my "About Me" section in the sidebar and be thinking, "Wife? Mother? She never mentioned those things in her LitK posts! What on earth?" Another question all of my potential readers but one (Hi, Teresa!) probably have is, "What's the story behind the new blog name?" I look forward to addressing these questions and more in upcoming posts. But for now, if I don't get this "I'm back" post done and published I'll never get to tell those stories.

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And so, it looks like I now have my answer to the question I posed at the beginning. I guess that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It feels good to be back.