Getting Started

The first post to a new blog is a little daunting to write. What should I say? How profound must I be? My first blog stemmed from a homework project for a class I was taking on technology in education where I had to establish a blog for use in an educational setting. The second blog came from the desire to be a little more creative and explore another interest, that is the natural world around my home. Both blogs went into a holding pattern as my new career in teaching took off, leaving me with little time for writing. You would have thought the educational blog would have taken off, but the school administration where I teach is a little leery of the use of some forms of technology. Not to mention it was all I could do to keep my head above water.
Now with a couple of years of teaching under my belt, I'm beginning to look at the quality of my life and discovering the need to establish a better work/home balance. I'm burning out and I need to find a way to renew my spirits. As the old year came to a close and time to reflect on resolutions or goals for the new year, I came to the conclusion that I sought to be more contented in life. You see I didn't write happy. I thought long and hard about the choice between pursuing happiness versus contentment. My Webster's dictionary (Ninth New Collegiate) defined being contented as, "feeling or manifesting satisfaction with one's possessions, status, or situation." To be honest, I am currently not contented with my life. Elsewhere in the dictionary it gave the definition of happiness as, "a state of well-being and contentment." I figure that means I must learn to be content before I can move on to happiness.
How to achieve that sense of contentment? I thought about what brings me enjoyment or a feeling of satisfaction, and I hit upon my love of reading. Even in the worst of times, I have a book close by. Reading can be soothing, exciting, even uplifting, and most of all life changing and saving. As an educator, I value written material of all types and the skills required to be a good reader. As an individual, I desire the knowledge, the escape, and the experiences I can have while deeply engaged in printed material.  I uncovered that contentment was to be had through reading. 
I have a guilty secret, I buy a lot of self-help books (and borrow quite a few from the library), and I was thinking it was about time to apply the lessons I learned from these books to my life. So started my plan to apply what I learned in my reading to my life. This blog will be a vehicle for me to journal the experiences I have learning from reading and applying it to my life both personal and work. I hope you enjoy the experience with me.