Hooray!  Through Her Eyes Blog (THE Blog) is three months old today.

THE Blog grew out of my search for a creative outlet.  I love to write, so a blog seemed like the perfect match.  Deciding to blog was easy.  Knowing how to start one and what to blog about was challenging.

After months of researching, thinking and planning, I decided that my blog intellect was high enough for me to leap into the world of blogging.  But I still had one problem.  I knew how to start a blog, but I had not settled on a subject to blog about.

I thought about the things and activities that I enjoy.  My mind almost immediately zeroed in on one of my great loves, food.  It’s not just about eating for me.  I appreciate the quality of food and technique required to prepare a great meal.  I decided to blog about food.  Dilemma solved.  I started the prep for my blog debut.

Breakfast is the first meal of the day, so I decided to make it the topic of my first post.  I prepared a three egg omelet with oven roasted potatoes and Gruyère cheese.  Chicken apple sausage, an English muffin with strawberry preserves, orange juice, and hot tea rounded out the offering.

I set the table and positioned the food.  Pride welled up inside of me as I surveyed the presentation that stood before me.  It was a scene straight out of one my cooking magazines.  The appearance and aroma drew me in.  I could no longer wait to taste my creation.  I sat down, picked up my fork and placed the first bite of omelet in my mouth.  The texture and flavor exceeded my expectation.  Each bite delighted me more than the previous one.  That is until I realized that I forgot to photograph my masterpiece.  By then almost half of the omelet was gone.  My love of food and hunger had exceeded my desire to memorialize the moment in pictures.  All I could do was to say “oh well” and continue eating.  In my mind there was no reason to disrupt my meal just to take a few snapshots of partially eaten food.

That moment helped me to understand that I probably never will be a good food blogger.  I have the requisite love and respect of food and the pickiness of a foodie, but I don’t have the patience to capture all of the details before I dive into the dish placed in front of me.  The truth is that being a foodie does not necessarily make one a good food blogger.  I’m okay with that fact.  There are plenty of wonderful food blogs out there, and I’m satisfied to read some of them instead of writing my own.

I accepted that food blogging was not my niche, but I still had to figure out what was.  I asked myself a question at that point.

“Who is Wyletter Whaley?”

I figured if I answered this question, I would find my niche.

The answer surprised me a bit.  I’m a storyteller at heart.

I have written in some form or another since fifth grade, but I never considered myself a storyteller until I went to see a career counselor about eight years ago.  She asked me to write a plan for my life and to share it with her.

When I finished reading the narrative detailing the life and career that I envisioned for myself, the counselor said, “You speak in paragraphs.  You tell a story with your words.”

I stopped and thought about what she said.  I had to agree with her.  What can I say?  I love words, and I love to communicate what’s going on around me.  I love to tell stories.  That’s what life is—a series of stories.

I recognized that I loved storytelling then, but I never looked for ways to express this love until I started my search for an online identity.  When I acknowledged the storyteller in me, I realized that I wanted to blog about the stories of everyday life.

This was a learning moment for me.  It emphasized the need to know myself and what I enjoy.  This principle applies outside of the blogging world.  One of the keys to success and happiness is knowing who we are and what we enjoy doing.

Do you know who you are?  Are you living your joy?  If not, it’s time to make one of the most important journeys that we can make–the journey to knowing ourselves and discovering our passion.  If we’re not passionate about who we are and our goals, we will not be inspired to accomplish them.  Passion makes the difference.  Know yourself.  Find your passion.

Blessings.

See.  Live.  Enjoy.