As I set out on this project that I’m calling Story Practice, I want to write down what I’m doing. Or at least what I think that I’m doing. This began with me thinking about how I could do more writing that was public facing. I wanted the writing to be anonymous, or at least pseudonymous. And I wanted to write for a platform that I would have control over. These desires led me to starting a WordPress blog, like it was 2004 all over again, but gave me little sense of what I might want to write about. When it came to content, I wondered if I could create something that combined my love of stories with ideas that were coming to me as a result of my recently started meditation practice. Thus Story Practice was born.
But what do I mean when I say this was inspired by a love of stories? I intentionally chose this idea of a story practice over a writing practice or a reading practice, even though what I envision as a story practice would include both of those things. For me, reading and writing alone couldn’t encompass everything that I loved about stories. It needed to include playing and building RPGs and other games. It needed to include the way that I crafted my own personal identity. I wanted to write about all of these things, and the word “story” felt like the best word to include all of that.
Then what do I mean when I say that this was inspired by ideas that came out of my meditation practice? It’s not that I have a strong desire to write about meditation, though I might at some point. It’s more that, when I started meditating, I started focusing more on the journey rather than the destination, more on the process of doing things rather than goals. This is what the word “practice” means for me. It’s the little things that you do every day that add up to a big thing over time. Practice also means that you don’t have to do things perfectly the first time. Or ever really. Stories are always works in progress. Stories always build over time. And I want my Story Practice to reflect that. I want this site to be a work in progress. I want it to grow and change as my own thoughts grow and change.