finding my tribe at blissdom.

check out the sweet cards @designmojo made for me!

Hi, I'm Katrina and my blog is ficklefeline.ca.  I blog about... ummm... yeah... huh.  How do I encapsulate everything I write about here in under ten words?  It took me a few intros to get it down, but by the end of the day I had it perfected.

I write about infusing joy into every single day.

Despite the challenges that get thrown my way in any 24 hour window, be it battling back depression, having a particularly challenging day with Max, feeling at the end of my rope with a lippy 2 year old, or not being able to get any "alone time" with my husband, that is a commitment I have made to myself.  Find your joy.  If I can do that, then I can manage all the other stuff.  I can do it.

Why the need for intros and attention getting business cards?  Long story short, I'm at the Blissdom Conference in Nashville this week.  Every year hundreds of women (and a few men) come together to discuss all things blogging and social media.  For a few short days this week I will be surrounded by a community of women who understand me.  They get the love of writing online.  They too get excited about twitter and facebook and sharing their stories with the universe.  Even better, within this community, there are tribes.  Groups of women who write about their children with special needs, or fitness, or mental health.  Lots of  other topics too, but those are the ones that bring it home for me.

Today I sat at a table of women who know what it is to raise a child with special needs.  Without saying a word, they already understand me better than the majority of people in my real life.  Last night I had dinner with a group of ladies who openly discussed all of the different medications they had taken to manage depression and the side effects each of them had.  The only thing that topped that was one of the conference founders confiding (quite loudly) that she counts back from 10 repeatedly when she is providing a certain service for her husband.  I think I may be in love.

Social media conventions can be overwhelming.  They are intense and the connections you make leave you feeling unraveled by the end of the day.  This one is by far the best one I've been to.  It's the right size, the energy is positive, and the people I have met are fascinating.  Also, today I met Brené Brown.  I had something really deep I wanted to say to her, but when I finally got the chance to say hello all I managed to stammer out was "thank you for being".  Regardless of me making an ass of myself, it was wonderful getting to hear her key note and be part of something bigger.

There is so much more to say, but I need to jet to a party... more later!