Ever Evolving Blogs

I've been blogging for a while now. I started with the site Apprentice Human in the Making in March of 2006. It was your fairly typical personal blog, originally launched as a way to stay in touch with family and friends. I really did not give any thought at all to it being a "public" site. I just wrote about whatever I was thinking about / doing at the time.

A couple months later I created Mind Muffins to give myself a bit of anonymity. This was the place where I explored some big ideas - and some not so big - but spent more time pondering questions that mattered to me and opened up some debate for whoever happened by. It was less focused on ME, more on what I found interesting, puzzling, annoying, whatever. It was for MM that I created the pseudonym of Belladonna Piranha. It was with that identity that I explored blogs far and wide, sampling various ideas and information. When safely cloaked with that persona I felt more comfortable bantering back and forth, debating ideas or cracking jokes with strangers in the blogosphere.

In June of '06 I also created Curious Minds just to use as a holding tank for educational resources. I occasionally go back to it now to add a new link or two under the various resource lists, but I never planned to post much on it.

By the end of 2006 I was tired of going back and forth between my two different blogs, so I formally closed down shop with Apprentice Human and began focusing on Mind Muffins exclusively.

I've gone through several incarnations with MM - have changed the background template multiple times and have rearranged the sidebar more often than I can count. My interest in keeping it has waxed and waned, but even though I've taken the occasional break from it, I keep coming back to it sooner or later. It's gone through some silly phases. I'm still not entirely sure what it's purpose or focus is. Mainly it's a place where I explore ideas and share with pals - some known and some virtual. I certainly don't take it all that seriously.

Recently I started a brand new blog called Life-by-Design. This is the place where I have been recording various life lessons that have been significant to me. I like that one a lot. I honestly don't care if anyone but me ever looks at LBD. On Mind Muffins I've tended to add or subtract stuff out of consideration of my audience. On LBD I don't. There are no side links, no blog roll, nothing to make it "popular". It's just there for me to remember key insights that were of value to me.

However, as I begin THIS new blog I have a different purpose. This will be the place where I record my expressions of my spiritual journey.

In the Book of Mormon the story is told of how Nephi recorded information on two different sets of plates, transcribing them for all posterity onto the metal pages. The large plates were where he told of the government & political events, wars, social commentary and various comings and goings among his people. The SMALL plates, however, were where he recorded the teachings of the prophets. They were the place for writing down matters of the spirit and truth to be shared with the ages.

This blog will be my own version of Small Plates - where I will write about answers to prayer, sacred reflection, and teachings of the prophets that touch my spirit. I have no illusion that anything I write is going to come even close to the sacred significance of the record kept by Nephi. But if this does nothing more than strengthen my own testimony of Christ, and stand as a witness for what I believe, that will be enough.