The widget wizard strikes again. Managing my blog in its new home on WordPress has been a challenge. Ever since I learned to build widgets on Typepad I felt a sense of overwhelming control. Someone else built my WordPress site and I felt like I gave up a little bit of control on the design of the page. Could I live with this? No. I had to go into my dashboard and regain that control, no matter how long I had to sit here and figure it out. I know. I’m slightly on the nutty side because I like to sit here and fiddle with the tech stuff until I can make it work.
This all started this morning when through my Root Notes Sunday newsletter I was directed to a wonderful site for writers. I visit a lot of writing sites, but subscribe to very few. This one was called “I Practice” and I learned so much from just the few posts I read, I decided to subscribe. On the page there was a logo and it suggested putting it on my blog page as a link to show I’m serious about educating myself as a writer and to help other new writers that visit my blog. A lot of my writer friends read this blog and I thought this would be a great way to share the wealth of such good content.
Now I had to build the widget. This is not what I had in mind for a quiet, relaxing Sunday morning, but when I want something bad enough I dig in. I went to my dashboard and hit “8 widgets” and found my eight widgets used to design my page. It took an hour or so, but in the end I built the widget, got it working properly, and was feeling smugly pleased with myself.
Bopping on over to my page, pressing the icon and having it zoom to the “I Practice” sight gave me a marked sense of accomplishment. It gave me something else too. It gave me my sense of control back. In this instance regaining control is a positive thing. It fosters independence and I had to work to gain it. I certainly didn’t want to own a site where I had to run to someone else every time I wanted to manage the content.
Controlling my technology is a good thing. Controlling things like how clean my house is, my clothes and hairstyle, when I work and when I don’t, where I go and who I spend my time with are all forms of control contributing to a healthy lifestyle. When it comes to controlling what other people do is where control becomes a bad thing, bringing anxiety to my heart and destroying my peace. Since I have taken a hands-off approach to what others do and say, my life has relaxed. Loosening the reigns and losing the fear of worrying about those close to me and focusing on only those things I can control caused situations in my life to flip around in record time. Letting go and letting God has been the story of my week. God can handle what others do and say, but I’m still the queen of widgets.
And so, as another day goes by, it’s good to know I can do what needs to be done, and….I have written.
PS – I almost forgot – if you want some great writing pointers, click on the pen in the upper right – see how well it works?
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