Making a comeback to blogging after an 8-year hiatus!

Well this feels slightly strange and liberating at the same time!  It's a new year and a new resolution. I've been reading a lot lately and thinking a lot about writing, but unfortunately I never seem to get around to writing about what I'm thinking.

All of this will change this year.

Where do I start? 

So, I just rediscovered my blog, which I began in November 2005, when I first moved to Israel. Yes, the very original-named sarahinisrael.blogspot.com 

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about getting back into writing again. Last week, I wrote this for my work for jwire.com.au . Other than that, I've written only a couple of times for the Times of Israel, not for lack of ideas or good intentions for more articles (no shortage of that!), but mainly more due to lack of time and lack of confidence that people will find interesting what it is I have to say. I don't know why.

I guess I could write about many topics. Maybe I should take a vote here?
I can write about such genres as:

• The amusing things I find about life in Israel
• The ups and downs (but mainly ups) of life as an Australian immigrant in Israel (this may me similar to point 1)
• The amusing things one discovers about parenthood (in Israel, and with my kids in particular, and just in general)
• Israeli Diplomacy (no shortage of issues to write about there)
• Israel-Diaspora relations, and why I love what I do and think it's important for young people to visit Israel on amazing programs like #AMHSI
• What really gets my goat in the world
• Trending news 
• Social media and marketing communications stuff

I really enjoy writing. I write press releases and sometimes I write longish status updates, which people seem to like. People keep encouraging me to write more. So, here you have it people - due to popular demand,

Baby Got  I AM  BACK!!!

I read plenty of blogs, some by people who I know, and some by total strangers. There's this woman, who I don't know personally, but she is battling cancer right now and she writes about it so honestly and so openly, I've been following her blog religiously for a while and I think about her and about her young kids whom she writes about often. Some bloggers who I follow, aren't particularly good at writing at all, but I admit I continue to read their crap anyway, because it gives me renewed inspiration each time to get back into writing my own, much-better-blog-than-theirs. I keep wanting to write, but since my last blog oh-so-long ago, so many things have happened...

Like this... happened. 

I made lots of new friends, got married, bought a place, renovated, got a 'proper' job, had a kid, did a Masters Degree (see nerdy cameo below), established a non-profit organization, opened a business, changed positions at my job, had another kid, bought another place, traveled overseas a bit...

                

I can never work out how one plunges back into things after an 8-year hiatus. How do I pick up the pieces? I have a hard enough time trying to pick up the phone and call friends of mine who I haven't spoken to in months. (By the way, speaking of new years resolutions, if you're one of those friends, and you're reading this, you know who you are and I feel really guilty about this, and hope to do something about this guilt some time really soon. So expect a call from me. Or feel free to call me first. That would be best!)  

I was writing regularly back in the day until I got sick of countless repetitive, long, eloquent emails, with friends and family back in Oz, and I moved communications over to my blog. I thought this was a great solution and I kept this up quite diligently until May 2006, my last entry, when, I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason I stopped. I think that must have been around the time when I began working as Deputy Editor for Time Out Israel magazine and guidebook, and was writing a lot for them. And then there came Facebook. And smartphones. And we all know what happened after that. 

I just racked my brain for a solid hour or so, trying to recall the password associated to the old email account with which I'd set this blog up, back when that email was the only thing I had a password for. (Ha, how times have changed!) After several failed attempts, a good dose of frustration, and a memory jog of several dearly loved ex-cats of mine (doesn't everyone make passwords out of pet names?) I finally gained access to the coveted dashboard, which is like being in the cockpit of a mystery flight. I have the power at my fingertips but the destination is as yet unknown. And it's exciting! So, here I am. I'm in. Fingers at the ready. Wondering what I should write about... 

Well, to start, I just re-read all my blog entries now and re-lived all the novelties and exciting discoveries that were part and parcel of my Aliyah experience (moving to Israel).  

Wow. What a trip down memory lane. I highly recommend it (not necessarily you reading my own past blogs, but you reading your old diary entries or old emails... as I also just managed to do now that I worked out the password!)

I feel as though I've stepped back in time. It's like I've rediscovered a once loved album which I'd long forgotten about. Kind of like when Alanis Morissette performed in December last year in Tel Aviv, during my penultimate week of pregnancy #2, and I hadn't listened to her music for a good 10 years, but swore to myself that one day, if and when I find myself in the same city as where she's performing, I will go, by hook or by crook (discovered last week that many Americans are not familiar with this idiom)! And then for weeks leading up to the concert, I just listened to her CD non-stop and all the awesome associated memories I had came flooding back, and I belted out nearly every word to every song at the concert with one of my best friends from high school by my side (Hi Shir!). I felt a rush, like I was young again, and I loved it and life was great.

Alanis, playing like she ought to know, in Tel Aviv

OR

It's kind of like I've chanced upon an old pair of my favourite jeans, hidden at the back of my wardrobe, ones that I've had since my teens and refuse to part with. Although I may have forgotten all about them, somewhere deep down I was hoping that I'd find them one day, and now I've just realised that not only are they still in perfect condition, but they're totally in style and I can still fit in to them. 

Ha! Who am I kidding? I may have gotten carried away there with the analogies so I'll quit while I'm ahead and get down to "tachles" (the most important word I've learnt in Hebrew since living here, which they didn't teach me at school, deriving from the Yiddish word - literally meaning "purpose" or "the  point").

Its 2:40 AM. I've been interrupted at least 10 times while writing this, and each time it set me back, trying to recall what it was I was thinking about saying before I got distracted. I am reminded of why I haven't touched this blog in so long!

But, with culprits like these, who can complain?

The guilty party who eat up all my time, my energy, and my love. 

More later. I'd love to know if people think it's worth me pursuing this blog and continuing with it, and if so, in what direction?