/reader

Hasty idea? Should I have thought it through a little more?

No, I don’t think so.

I did think about it, and I decided to give it a try. I figured it was the only way to really know if it would fly.

Otherwise, I would’ve spent endless hours just thinking about it, never really knowing how it would feel in real life. Instead of three hours, it might have turned into three days down the drain.

If you have an idea, don’t waste your time trying to perfect it. Try it out, within reasonable limits. See how it feels and how others respond... if it even survives longer than three hours.

You might end up with something you would never have discovered by only thinking about it. Go live and see what comes alive.

Good luck!

I opened the theme settings in Bear and switched to the Plain HTML theme. It leaves you with pretty much a blank sheet:

body {
  width: 720px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

nav a {
  margin-right: 5px;
}

That’s what my blog looks like at the time of this writing.

Then another idea popped up. Since there’s no rush, I might as well document the whole process. Who knows, maybe someone else finds it helpful.

Most Bear users already have a theme they enjoy, but they might still pick up a tip or two. Others might want to follow along from scratch, watch their own theme come to life, and learn a lot in the process.

So, here we go, Bear theme building live →

Anyway, I explained to her there was nothing indicating a leak.

— But it’s a problem, she said.
— No, there’s no problem, I replied.
— Yes, there is. I’m worried.

I explained as gently as I could that this was not the kind of problem I could solve. It wasn’t even a real problem, just a mind-made one.

I suggested she put some paper on the floor up there. Check it whenever worry came creeping back. That calmed her down and she thanked me for both the visit and the advice.

It’s surprisingly common that I visit “problem houses” where the only real issue is the idea that something is wrong. People even tell me they have physical symptoms because of the thought of a problem. And I believe them. Truly.

That’s how powerful the mind is. But our awareness is even more powerful.

We don’t have to believe everything that little voice in our head tells us. We can observe those tiny attic monsters without feeding their story. And when we shine the light of awareness into that dark attic, we see the truth: there were never any monsters there to begin with.

Great activities that I enjoy. But there’s one I love even more, and that’s writing. I find it so relaxing and rewarding.

Just a blank page and a quiet mind. Then bits and pieces slowly start falling into place. It might begin with only a couple of words, or sometimes just a feeling, a hunch, an itch.

Something is coming to life. You’re not even sure what it is yet, but the words, sentences, and paragraphs start piling up. Slowly revealing a story you didn’t even realize was waiting to be written.

But there it is, seemingly born out of nothing. You look at it, read it, read it again, and think to yourself:

I’m gonna call it “When writing writes itself”.

Is it because of common interests? Somewhat, but it’s far from the whole answer. Maybe because of distance? Nope, these people are scattered across quite a large area.

I believe it comes down to the Swedish term lagom (just the right amount). Not in terms of the actual number of people, but how much time we spend together. We talk, text, and meet in a way I feel is lagom.

As soon as I feel a kind of neediness in people, that constant pull for attention and interaction, I keep my distance. Otherwise, I get drained. It gets too much for me to handle.

So I’m subconsciously cautious, guided more by feelings than facts.

And somehow, it lands at ten percent being lagom.