Second Branches

The title of this blog was chosen for several reasons, the most immediate being due to my taking up blogging as a discipline for the second time.  But as soon as the name suggested itself several overtones folded in quickly on top of the first.  Here are many variants:

1.       A second time through, as in repeating something but with a fresh approach

2.       A second chance, as in forgiveness and repentance following sin, or even outright failure.

3.       A second, as in the 60^th part of a minute

4.       Second born traits – I’m a second born, and that has surprising explanatory power

5.       To second, meaning to speak up in support for a motion

6.       Seconds, as in going back for more after the first helping of yummy food has been devoured

Each carries a theme near and dear to me, with second-born traits being the most elusive, intriguing, and downright frustrating, even for myself.  But within and between these variations the theme of gratitude moves freely, giving them a profound and cheerful hue.

It’s that first one that stirs in me today.  More than a week has passed since my last entry.  The significance of this strikes at my motivations for starting up, for a second time, blog writing.  In its first iteration, blogging served as a way to shift my focus to a more outward direction.  Blog entries brought the potential that others would see my thoughts.  Consequently I had to be clearer, more concise, and consider what readers would be willing to read.

One key that moved me into actual practice was having the achievable goal of one entry per month.  This was commitment enough to be meaningful, yet attainable with a healthy margin for error.  After years of doing it my perspective did, in fact, shift, as did my thought patterns.  Toward the end I found myself writing more poems, and what finally took it out of me was a series of 5 sonnets.  The theme and structure required a great deal of work and rework, write and rewrite, and settling time in between.  That taxed my abilities at crafting words, and by that time I had said pretty much everything I needed to say.  So ended Blog Phase 1.

Last year I found myself in one of life’s quandaries wishing for better facility with voicing my interests.  I then remembered that regular writing, as with Phase 1, kept me better positioned to use words.  That’s when I decided to launch Phase 2, but it was not enough simply to re-do Phase 1.  This time around I wanted a shift to a less autobiographical effort.  I had already said what needed to be said as autobiography.  So here I am in a second iteration of blogging in a modified approach.

And the part of reality that enters here is that the only true first is the actual first; everything after turns out to be a second.  Here in this broken world of broken people and things, taking any first step is a nearly heroic action.  But the second time is both a repeat and a new first.  It’s the first step of growth, and each subsequent step is like a second second.  In all creation, therefore, only God is first, with all good things secondary.  “I am the Vine, you are the branches.”