My Favorite Blog Right Now

A while back I wrote a post about the Pinetrees Lodge on Lord Howe Island.

When I did my research for the post, I learned that Dani Rourke, the owner of Pinetrees Lodge has a blog. I've been reading it ever since. I started at the beginning and read a post almost everyday.  

I really love it, because Rourke is refreshingly honest and doesn't do that whole thing of trying to appear overly perfect. 

Okay, let's be honest. Most of these people on the Internet who appear overly wonderful and make me feel so inferior  are probably not lying. They probably do cook all their meals from scratch using fresh herbs from their backyard gardens. They probably do recycle everything and utilize every drop of rainwater.  It's likely that they fill their children's hours with carefully planned creative activities, often involving toothpicks and gumdrops. They don't binge-watch television, because they're too busy doing volunteer work and having intellectual literary discussions with their children who have never once played Minecraft.  

I love Dani Rourke's blog because she admits to being dependent on frozen spaghetti meals.

I love it, because in this post she describes one of her kids' challenging behavior on a boat ride. And I love that she admits, I’m sure Pixie’s behaviour will improve if I stop laughing every time she does something naughty.

I guess what I love is people who are not living an idealized life, and who are brave enough to admit  it.

Oh! I almost forgot. My favorite Dani Rourke post is this one. It's about the whole glorification of busyness.

She starts out with this brilliant statement:  Being busy is the new black. When we say: “I’m so busy!” we are really saying how important we are. It can become quite competitive after a while. It isn’t enough anymore to do your job and look after your kids, have dinner with your husband and stay on good terms with your parents.

What I love most though is what she says here. Well, first Rourke explains how her life has gotten more busy lately.  Then she says,  But – and this is a big but – I’m writing this blog, aren’t I? (And you’re reading it!) So what does that say about how busy we really are?

Amen to that.

I think the people who truly ARE overly busy and don't have a choice about it...we're probably not hearing from them on social media.  



How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-beloved to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts