665th Friday Blog Roundup

So once upon a time, we were at a Hebrew school crossroads, trying to decide how/if we wanted to continue.  I was really on the fence, not sure the best path forward.  That day, I received a note through the Listserve.  I’ve been on the list since the first note because I signed up for it before it began since I wrote an article about it.  I never left, and I read every single one that comes into my inbox.

I’ve written three Listserve writers since it started in 2012.  One was a fellow infertility blogger.  One was a funny coincidence that I felt had to be shared.  The last was the author of the note I just mentioned.

He wrote about being in Israel and how all these decisions and events from his past led up to his current life.  First of all, it was just a really smart, well-written piece, but secondly, he specifically mentioned how his Bar Mitzvah didn’t really mean anything to him at the time, but how it informed these other life choices.  And he wrote, “This is all to say that I’m learning about the power of knowing your history, of being able to continually connect your present experience with the past—the now with the then.”

It felt like a sign from the universe; to get this note delivered to my inbox exactly when I needed it.  We decided to keep with the whole traditional Hebrew school to B’nai Mitzvah path, and look, here we are.  Anyway, I wrote him at the time to tell him this story, and we went back and forth with notes.  I promised I would write him in 4 years and let him know if the kids thanked him or cursed him.  It has now been 4 years, and I got to write to thank him for his words all those years ago.

The point of all this: You write something and you have no clue how your words will change someone else’s life.  They’ll make a different decision or they’ll try something new, and their life will go off in a new and wonderful direction.  I like to believe that the right words generally reach you at the right time if you’re open to hearing them.  I know they did that night when I opened the Listserve email.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Sometimes, You Can’t Run After Them” (Inconceivable!)
• “‘As a Father’ (Same Song, Second Verse)” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “Squawk Box: Secondary Losses” (Unpregnant Chicken)
• “Read Your Own Story” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Cristy!

Okay, now my choices this week.

So, yes, she’s above, but I only read Inconceivable! over the weekend to find her gorgeous post about The Runaway Bunny.  She writes, “The Runaway Bunny seemed particularly apt.  If you run away, I will run after you, the mother bunny promises her little bunny.  I had run after this child, first with all the poking and prodding, then medications, and finally the IVF.  Right then, it seemed perhaps I had finally caught this baby.”  It is a post marking Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month, and it is such a gorgeous, heartbreaking post.

Misconceptions About Conception explores whether genes matter to her after she gets back pictures from a family photo shoot.  She admits that she has no comparison, no way of proving she is correct, but she knows what she knows with her heart.  It’s a beautiful post about love.

Lastly, My Path to Mommyhood has a post about being asked the “do you have kids” question while she was trying to enjoy herself at a ball.  (A ball with video games?  I am so there.)  My favourite line: “I think sometimes people feel better if they think that they’ve given you hope, even though for us hope came finally in the letting go of that possibility so we could focus on the rest of our life.”

The roundup to the Roundup: When the right words come at the right time.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between October 13th and 20th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.