People make fun of me because I don't carry Louis Vuitton or Coach or any designer leather handbags to work. I carry handmade canvas bags to work. Most of the time, people in the corporate world assess how I dress and the accessories I carry and assume that I'm an art-loving bohemian hippie, and I think I am okay with that assessment. I'm also okay with blowing their expectations out of the water when I open my mouth to speak about technology and business and streamlining work processes.

The handmade bags that I carry are made by Moop, which is a small business run by a lovely woman named Wendy. She started making these incredibly sturdy and useful bags, and I fell in love. I own more Moop bags than I care to admit. The only ones I've had to replace are the ones I have lost. I tell all my friends about Moop.

Today, Wendy wrote a post about her "breakup" with AdWords. It describes everything I feel about doing business and living life. And how the whirlwind pace of online technology can affect all of that, if you're not careful. 

I did not start Moop to master the art of SEO.  Someone else can take that on as their life's passion.  For me, I'll take everything listed prior to that.  The truth is, somewhere along the line, I lost sight of the most important things that make me love the business I have built.  At the very core, I am interested in relationships.  I value more than anything the relationships I have with everyone around me.

Thanks, Wendy, for reminding us of what matters.

I used to be very confused about my objective for blogging. Did I want to increase my pageviews? Did I want to encourage people to comment? Did I want to ask people to link to my blog?

In the end, I realized that what I cared about for this space here was freedom. Freedom to be myself, freedom to be thoughtful, freedom to take notes on the things I find important in life. I didn't want to erect any boundaries around the writing I did in this particular forum. Later down the line, I found avenues for other trains of thought. The mediums to express yourself now seem endless, and I think it is worth it to look back and start revisiting how each medium helps you realize your goals and dreams. I think it's okay to reinvent yourself. I think it's okay to express different sides of your personality in the places you've set aside for that expression. And, like Wendy, I think most of all, I am interested in keeping sight of the most important things that make me love doing the things I have created. I am interested in the relationships that are borne from that love.

To this day, I don't talk much about my writing here. I don't advertise it, because that's not the point for this particular blog. The reason why I feel like I can exercise my freedom here daily is because this is my sanctuary. Once I went back to find that sentiment that I had lost along the way (when I started counting pageviews or simultaneously hoping and fearing an increase of readership), I felt free.