Once again for the month of April I will joining others in the annual online event Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge that invites bloggers to write their way through the alphabet. Given my penchant for abecedariums, how can I possibly resist?
Today we’ve been encouraged to “reveal” our theme – what we’ll be spending our month writing about.
From the moment we flipped our calendars to 2019, I once again became obsessed with maps. I’m dreaming about them, reading about them, sketching my own versions. None of the maps I’m particularly interested in are literal maps of places – my musings are rather more imaginative, and I’ve spent many days creating accordion fold (and Turkish map fold) booklets, filling the pages with “stops” on imaginary train stations I’ve traveled through on the winding route my life has taken. I expect this oh-so-not-linear process will be something I continue to delightedly delve into for some time, and I’ve decided to extrapolate a bit on this general idea and do some more exploring for this blogging challenge.
So I’m going to take you on a ride through my brain, making stops at ideas and concepts that delight me. Because I’m a sesquipedalian (a person who is fond of long, unusual words), every “stop” will be based on unusual and/or obscure words that delight me, and each entry will simply be a riff about what that word brings up for me. You’ll quite literally get to see how my brain works – hence a very literal brain map of something that sparks joy for me created for you daily. I’ve always loved the idea of Wunderkammer, those cabinets of curiosities and wondrous things. Don’t you think that’s what our brains really are?
I certainly hope you’ll stick around in April and take a peek into my cranium.
By month’s end perhaps you’ll have a better sense of me and maybe you’ll have fallen in love with a new word or two, or possibly even spent a few moments wondering and being curious about what delights you. All good things I think.
And I hope you’ll consider playing along as well. There’s still time to join here, and you know I’d love to read your abecedarium. In the meantime, have any obscure words you swoon over? Have a stash of wonders that delight you? Curious about your brain and what you’ve got stored in there? Do tell – you know I’d love to hear.
Hi Debbie – great idea … and I’ll be a-watching as this year I won’t be participating … enjoy it – cheers Hilary
While I’m sorry you won’t be playing this year Hilary, I know you’ll be enjoying the madness from a reader’s perspective – there are always so many wonderful finds to treasure aren’t there?
So looking forward to learning some new words from you, Deb. I’ll be posting my reveal later today. I’m hoping I can pull the thing off!
I’ll be cheering you on Janet. I’m quite looking forward to April’s adventure.
I love learning new words, and enjoy finding out how different people tick. (or more accurately, taking a look inside their thought processes) The link between the brain and a cabinet of wonders is intriguing.
Curiosity is a wonderful thing isn’t it Margaret? It’s often the entryway into happy surprises, and that’s how I like to think about April’s A-to-Z challenge. You never know what you’ll find.
Hari OM
You know I will be coming along for the ride – as a passenger this year, sadly, as am travelling to Australia for April/May and just would not be able to keep up with posting. Doesn’t stop me reading, though be prepared that I may not be able to always comment either, depending on where I am on any given day, as I shall be doing some travel within country too. Happy abc-ing and best wishes! YAM xx
Thanks for the kind wishes. Although I’m sorry you aren’t playing along this year, I’m betting you’ll have a most wonderful time on your journey. Sounds like great fun and I’ll look forward to your posts about it.
It sounds like another ambitious and interesting endeavor. I will be reading along.
Thanks Candace!
I love maps! I have a shelf full of books about making creative maps. You always have the best ideas. I’m batting around the idea of doing this blogging challenge – might be a way to jumpstart my flagging blog. We’ll have to talk more about maps in Circe’s next week!
I’d love to see you playing along in the challenge Carol – you know I love your writing! Consider yourself encouraged.
How fun that you have a collection of creative map making books. Sounds like the perfect guidance down innumerable rabbit holes. 🙂 And of course, I’m always up for talking about maps – that’ll be great.
What a wonderful theme. I’m looking forward to the new words. I have a theme and more than half my posts written but am having second thoughts because the new Gutenberg editor is so fiddly and I fear it will all take up too much time. Let’s see.
Thanks Kalpana – I’m really looking forward to the challenge as well. Good for you for having so many of your posts written already – undoubtedly that makes things quite a bit easier, and that’s always a good thing in April. I’m with you on the Gutenberg editor being challenging, but I’m hoping by the end of April I’ll have adapted seamlessly from so much practice. Good luck, have fun, and I look forward to your posts!
How lovely to have found your blog and your very interesting them for A2Z. This is going to be great fun. It is my 3rd go-round. I’ll be checking back.
Hi Elaine – nice to have found you as well. I’m quite looking forward to this challenge – it’s always such hectic fun, and I’m certainly looking forward to your posts. Good luck!
Sounds like a lovely theme, always get to learn new things from your A-Z. All the very best for the challenge. See you in April.
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I’m looking forward to your posts as well. Happy April!
I love maps. Will you be sharing some of yours? They sound fascinating!
While I don’t think I’ll be sharing any of my maps during the actual A2Z challenge, we’ll see. I don’t write my posts ahead of time so my Muse is always in charge of what happens. But in any case, I do think I might do a series, or at least a few posts at some point, on my maps. I am obsessed after all. 🙂