My name is Ra and I've built a good life.... a few times over. I'm in the process of doing it again.
You should know: I'm not really a writer- I'm really more a reader than anything else- but I like to tell stories. True ones, trimmed with fanciful lace and adorned with steel buttons.
You might be here because you stumbled on this page. You might be here because you saw something I said or read, and traced me back to my bloggy home.
But you're probably here because you heard one of these things:
- I love someone you love.
- I recently became a felon and a widow.
- There's lots of blog-building activities and suggestions to be found here.
- This blog and the love that happens here, are quasi-folklore-esque.
No matter what brought you here, welcome. Truly! I want you to feel at home. I want you to join in. I want you to laugh over the things that aren't even funny. I want you to tell me your name, and everything that makes you tick.
But first:let's talk about what's going on here because it can be overwhelming.
It all started in 2012. On one of my rebuilds of life, I started an eponymous blog. (I'm normally not the sort to name things after myself- not when there's alliteration, allusion, and acronyms to splash in- but when all you have is your name, you stretch it.)
Rarasaur blog became quasi-successful right from the start. No one knows why, but it was certainly well-known for a few things:
- Blogging about blogging.
- My love story.
- Awards. This blog was Freshly Pressed a handful or so times, was named one of IndieChick's BadAss Bloggers, and was selected to be one of BlogHer's Voices of the Year twice in a row. It was also kindly granted several blogger to blogger awards, and other stuff. I even hosted a Daily Post Weekly Writing Prompt once! If this is the sort of thing that's meaningful to you, please enjoy the gif on the sidebar or the jars of gratitude.
- The community that sprouted up here when no one was looking.
- My "style" - relentless, high-energy, down-home frivolity. #LetsGoLetsGoLetsGo
When I was in prison, the girls introduced me to an expression that probably would have been my catchphrase had I known it back in 2012-
It's not that serious.Because nothing really is, least of all this blog. Even when we're being human or hopeful. Even when we're celebrating one of the thousands of blog-things, prompts, holidays, prizes, games, and inside jokes that have been born here.
I believe the nature of this blog is a huge reason for its success.
(Side note: since there's about a thousand different definitions around, you should know I've always defined success as, "finding joy in your work and being sustained by the goodwill of a well-matched community.")
Other possible reasons for early success:
Now, before May of 2014, I would have added a #9. "And who cares? It's not that serious. "
But then I went to jail.
I pleaded to five white collar felony counts and signed a 3-year plea deal. The case had started back in 2010 and, until I was turning myself in, I didn't really make mention of it at all on this blog.
I often spoke of how my husband and I had rebuilt and recuperated, but I didn't explain the details.
I wasn't being vague on purpose. I was being hopeful on purpose. I really wanted it all to be in the past. Rarasaur blog was supposed to be part of my future, but then that dream seemed as if was whisked away. After all, one year in internet time is a decade in real world time. After 438 days incarcerated, I expected to find nothing here but crumbled red plastic cups where the party once was.
Except the Rarasaur community is bigger than that, and deserving of the quasi-folklore status. It is legendary and I am only a tiny part of it. So, when I was removed from the equation, it did not blink, or flinch, or falter.
It dug its giant dinosaur feet in, and held its ground.
Today is not the day we go extinct, it said. We are loved. We are needed. We will remain.
And they were, and they are, and they did.
My husband took care of me while I was tucked away in a pocket of timelessness- when I was in state prison- leaning heavily on the community. They carried him, and cared for him, as best they could.
But despite human intentions, the cosmos breathe as they please. The stars closed in around him, and space vacuumed up his life.
He died.
One year, to the date, that I turned myself in.
And Rarasaur blog stood its ground still.
The community was at the funeral. The community was in the hundreds of letters I received. The community was in how they kept traditions going, and lent their love to any who needed it.
Two months later, I was released. A free once-upon-a-time wife. A free basically-dinosaur.
A free blogger.This blog is still just a hobby, and everyone is still welcome here- to join, participate, and play. I still spin, talk gibberish, write horrible poems. Even after all the stretching we've done, things are remarkably the same here.
At this particular moment, we're catching up and grieving together. This community and myself lost a good man. You'll feel his loss, too. I'm sorry for sharing that sorrow with you, but you're part of this big beautiful world and you should know about the blank space he left in it. We also lost a lot of time, and things happened to all of us. We're still figuring out how we feel about it.
If you've heard rumors of the frightfully wondrous things that happen here- if you've heard rumors that there is magic here- I hope you now know with certainty. These rumors whisper truths.
I'm a storyteller, who likes to tell true stories- and this is the most magical one I know:
Frightfully wondrous people gather here.
And that has made all the difference.
I've linked to a series of posts all through this, but the only one that matters- my favorite post of all time- I'm linking here: Beware. It's bigger than the internet.
Just like us.
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Okay, Best Beloveds- you all know how okay I am with you being voyeurs or silent-likers, but I need your help on this one. Does this explain all the things for newbies? New Beloveds, do you feel informed? What did I miss?
I'm going to try this general story in video format and doodle-story format, too- and then maybe offer all three options up at the top.