"That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs. Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass, all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—is always changing, moment to moment."
And so too is this blog. To be perfectly honest, I don't handle change well. I like the familiar and the wonderfully comfortable and I'd be thrilled if a great deal of my life never changed so much as one iota from day to day or even year to year. Granted, this is odd coming from someone who finds the changing of the seasons and the cycles of the earth so beautiful to experience, but I don't need to personally fret over the details of Mother Earth because I'm not in control of her. I am however in control of my blogs, or so I thought at any rate, and as such I tend to fuss over every last little thing because I'm a perfectionist in addition to being willingly and blissfully stuck in a rut.
The other day, in a very uncharacteristic moment, I thought it might be fun to change my blog. Then I remembered what a pain in the ass I am and decided it would be far less stressful to just let it be. So, it was with great annoyance, as well as quite a bit of surprise at the timing, that I received a note today informing me that the website from which I had gotten my background templates for two of my three blogs is shutting down and I had only a few hours to either find something new or find myself with two hideously plain blogs. And after hours of test-driving templates, I have come up with nothing I truly like. I'm not terribly fond of this gray, but as I'm not a frou-frou kind of girl, finding something simple isn't easy. I miss my warm orange blog. I miss the earthy colors I had grown so used to. I find this gray rather depressing, but in trying to roll with it, I'm going to take a lesson from the Buddha: "Nothing stays the same so get over it already" (obviously, I'm paraphrasing here). And one day, hopefully soon, I'll find the template that warms my heart once more. And it might not be gray.
Many thanks to the incredible Pema Chodron for that quote.
5 comments:
Oh dear.
I'm afraid I only have the absolutely bog-standard template for my own blogs.
You ought to be able to change the colours and background image, with Blogger's new template designer. I had a brief look, and then decided that it wasn't quite that simple, and felt a bit nervous about messing everything up.
The grey tones you have at the moment are a bit sombre. Rather like an overcast rainy day in November. Though they do match the tones of the two birch tree photos you have. All a bit melancholy.
Be daring - live dangerously - go into template designer and try to change the colours.
I've just had another look, and it doesn't seem that difficult.
I tried using 'Edit HTML', rather than Template Designer.
It's quite easy to find 'body' and then 'background', and that's the place where you just type the colour you want, or the URL of the image to use.
But I didn't actually try changing them on my own blog.
There's a simple explantion about changing background colour or image here:
http://simple-blogger-tips.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-change-blogger-background.html
If trying that technique it's best to backup your existing template first.
I like it...I love change...sometime a little too much. It always makes me feel new!
~i feel your words...change is difficult for me...yet i am thrilled with the season and cycles of life...yet those in which i can control do remain the same...untouched...i did change my background a few times and am thrilled that i took that step...your background will come to be and you will rejoice in the fact that you had to change! i l♥ved the color it was...so different and warming...the grayness is dark and enchanting...good luck finding your way...warm wishes and brightest blessings~
Thank you all for your feedback! I just looked at it for the first time today and while I like my choice of text colors, (and I DO like gray- just not here) I'm still having trouble viewing it objectively, lol. And Robur: I can change my background colors when I use only a blogger template and not a custom one I add, which is visually more interesting. When I use a custom background I can only change the colors of my text, sidebars, border colors, titles et al....
I'm going to give it a few days, live with it (which will be good for me) and then see if a warm and gentle background template finds me once again as 1) I want it for myself and 2) I don't want to put off readers with a harsh and moody-looking blog.
Peace to you all!!
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