Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

What do you want?

Out of life?

Out of yourself?

Out of this blog?

Are you asking these questions?

If not, I’d recommend you start.

Call it manifesting, or visualizing.

Call it asking for help for the Universe, prayer, or self-actualization.

Call it what you like.

But if there’s one thing you’ve learned from Sunshine and Olly so far, (I’d hope,) it’s that I keep it real.

(Which means I live by the advice I dispense.)

That’s the root of authenticity, so I’m told.

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I wasn’t even sure I wanted to start this blog, until I decided to do it.

But when I’m in, I’m all in.

And what have I noticed so far?

My greatest wish has already come true.

I hoped that by starting to write three, four, and five times a week, I’d build stronger brain-muscles.

It seems to be happening.

Though I used to think my weekly APE column kept me in creative shape, this is so much better.

Shorter posts.

No need to be discursive, because I don’t have to always circle back to photography.

Sunshine and Olly is my art, right now. (Along with writing my first novel.)

I’m doing it for me, but since a global audience has mushroomed in the past three weeks, it’s not just about me.

Is it?

It’s also about you.

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Like it or not, a readership is a community.

But not one that often has opportunities to connect with itself.

Some creators enable an audience to learn about other members. To cross-pollinate, or allow tentacle formation.

Maybe that will happen here?

Maybe it won’t.

But I’d like to get to the point today, so here it is.

You came here of your own free will.

Nobody’s making you listen to me.

If I have any previously developed street-cred with you, or if you’re a new reader, I’ll still ask the same thing.

Please use this blog launch as inspiration.

Doing hard, scary things, is hard and scary.

The payoff to challenging ourselves, though, is immense.

In my (nearly) 49 years on Earth, I’ve learned that nothing that comes easy has the same value.

We all wish for easy, sometimes, but it doesn’t get the job done.

Growth requires bravery and risk.

(Would that it were different, but it’s not.)

Catch you next time, and please subscribe to the blog, if you’d like to receive it directly in your email inbox.

Ciao!