I realize I’m throwing a lot at you guys this week. Every Monday I will post a prayer for the week. Every Friday for a few weeks I will interview a fellow mental-health blogger or professional. And for Wednesday … you get me, in the flesh, live (at least taped live, times 25 takes)! Here’s my first video blog.Let me tell you why I first panicked when Beliefnet asked me to do this:1. A video cam adds 35 pounds to you (and five to everybody else). Like every other American woman, I have a body image complex, and as such don’t like cameras of any kind.2. I hate wearing make-up. In fact, I just went out and bought some because I was still applying the stuff I used for my wedding every time I got dressed up (twice annually). The day I taped this segment, my sister dropped by unexpectedly and, upon seeing that I was made up, asked me, “What the hell is going on?” 3. I have bad posture. 4. I don’t adjust well to change. Especially if it involves technology. Poor Matt from Beliefnet spent an hour on the phone with me describing which button on the screen in front of me would record. “It’s there,” he repeated, “I know it is. You just have to look harder.” “No. No, it’s not. Mine doesn’t have a record button,” I insisted.5. I was afraid you, Beyond Blue readers, wouldn’t like me. I say that in the most insecure seventh-grader-self way. I mean, I know how it is when you read a column or a book and you envision the author a certain way. Then you show up to his book reading and say to yourself, “Dang, I liked my image better.”But my Beliefnet editors thought video blogging would be an important tool for growing and deepening our Beyond Blue community. And I agree with them. The more real I am to you allows you to be more real to me and the other readers. Since Beyond Blue is my depression support group, I need to be as transparent as I would if I were sitting in a meeting of DRADA or NAMI, kicking back with an awful cup of coffee. And I hope, eventually, that you can post your own videos (that requires learning more technology, though, so it might not happen immediately).Please tell me what you think (that is, I hope I can handle it).

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