You Have to Start Somewhere

When it comes to writing, I am often very well-intentioned. I plan to write papers early. I plan to journal daily. I plan to write letters to friends in far-away places. But the reality is that these plans often fail to come to fruition. This blog has been planned in my mind for months. Despite my repeatedly renewed intentions to get it up and running, I obviously haven't before this moment.

The problem is that I don't like to leave things unfinished. I like to start something, do a complete and thorough job, and then be done with it. But it seems that's not how it works in the world of blogging. You write something one day, maybe leave something out, come back the next day, and pick it right back up. It's so unresolved!

However, I've come to realize that I must start somewhere, even if it is at the point of admitting the inevitable insufficiency and incompleteness of anything I write here. I will not be able to write the perfect first blog that will forever endear all readers to my writing. I will not be able to write a post that includes everything I want to say (or even most of what I want to say). But I can write a first post.

Through all my rambling, I think this actually gets to the heart of what the title of this blog (and the intended theme of the blog) is all about. I don't know much of anything about Edward Everett Hale, but I love this quote accredited to him:
"I am only one.
But still I am one.
I can not do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I can not do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

Even if I can't write a perfect blog, I can still write a blog. And more importantly, even if I can not educate all the children in Liberia, I can educate a child in Liberia. Even if I can not feed all the hungry children in the world, I can feed one child. Even if I can not show love to everyone, I can show love to someone.

And that's why, in August, I'm heading to Liberia. So keep checking in... next time I'll share a little more about why I'm going to Liberia, and what the "something" is that I hope might happen there.