“I can do that!”

Not yet four years old, he declared it with innocent conviction. He was 100% confident.

“I can do that! I just don’t do it,” he explained, in total peace and contentment.

The “that” he so referenced was a Hoop Dance performed by a most expert and agile Native American teen. This dancer astonished and delighted an audience at the Utah State Fair, creating a rhythmic and visual splendor with his dozen-or-more hoops, formations and footwork. My family and I stood spellbound.

My little Joe came away from that occasion with pure inspiration. He is an adult now, but I’ve never forgotten his reaction to one amazing dancer:

“I CAN DO THAT!”

And so it is today as I launch my new blog—I can do that!

Never mind that I’ve never done it. Because, well . . . “I just don’t do it!”

Truth is, I’m super good at NOT doing it. I can not do it even in my sleep!

But it’s time to do it, so I am. Even if I don’t know hoops about writing a blog, maintaining a blog, succeeding at a blog . . . blog I shall.

I can do it, according to Joe.

Welcome then, my Readers, to WHATSOEVER WORDS.

Words are, to me, like the fabled Pied Piper. The spell and magic of words draws me, like the Piper’s fluted melody drew the children of Hamelin to follow him.

But not just any words. My heart seeks uplifting, encouraging words, meaningful memories, inspiring stories. The words I love are the choice kind that nourish the soul.

It’s maybe no surprise that my inspiration came from The New Testament, as to what to call my blog. (Settling on a name for one’s blog is much trickier than I imagined! But that’s a subject for a later post, maybe.)

In an old book of poetry, I found a section entitled Wisdom and Beauty. Amongst lines penned by Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Victor Hugo, was this familiar verse from Philippians 4:8:

Words are things, are they not? Words also can be true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. So can stories, poems, histories, and blogs, perhaps. Thus, we have WHATSOEVER WORDS, and the aspiration to live up to a noble standard, worded so beautifully by St. Paul.

There, then, is my motivation to write. And too, my consternation about writing. The bar is set high, and I jumpeth not hardly!

But I do writeth, from time to time. I’d choose a livelihood of writing, if that could be arranged. Choosing words, placing words, weaving words . . . that is a delight to me. I’m thinking of myself as a writer. I must be one if I have a blog, yes?

I assume that one’s blog needs regular feeding, so I’ll need to write again, for the next post. There is also much choosing to do about my blog’s landing page, format, font type, etc. These will keep me perplexed for a while yet.

Its okay. I CAN DO THAT!

As a beginner, I would sincerely LOVE comments. Thank you, Dear Readers!