blossoms on our red current bush
Yesterday I realized that today, April 17, marks five years of blogging for me...and it all started here. Whew! I find it amazing that I’m still around after all this time.
There have been many times when I’ve contemplated packing it in. If you blog, you know what I mean. There are times when it feels like I have absolutely nothing of interest to say...that I’ve said it all and how many times can I reinvent the same old, same old. It’s kind of like having an old friend who knows all your story’s and sometimes you’re not sure what you’ve told them already and really, are they even listening any more?
But at the same time, I know I’m not the same person I was five years ago…but then, neither are you! A few of you have been coming by since the beginning but in blogland as in life, things change, people change, and people come and go.
The one thing that has kept me going is that when all is said and done, I write this blog for me. I made a decision early into the game that I’d stop looking at my stats to see if ANYONE came. Checking stats is a sure way to bring up all our feelings of insecurity and rejection! A few years ago Typepad changed their format and made it more difficult to avoid this, so I now have to move through the stats page to get to the posting page...but I still make a point of not checking the numbers.
It may sound odd but one of the main reasons I blog is because it’s a record of me…my life...and the fact that I have lived, had these thoughts, did these things…that I existed. It’s a modern day version of the journals that women have been keeping for years. The difference now is that these journals are interactive.
It’s the retrospective that gives me so much satisfaction; I like to look back to see who I was five years ago (someone very insecure about being so visible) and where the photographs have documented my ever so tentative steps on my creative journey...through the various stages of photography, digital art and more recently, mixed media and painting.
I’m in the process of taking all of these posts (666 of them now, from both my first blog... Thru My Lens Lightly and this, my current blog, Inspired) as well as nearly 2000 photographs...and turning them into hard covered journals (one for each year). I’ve completed and printed one and another is ready for printing. Two others have been started but the editing is a slow and detailed and I can only handle short bursts of it. I’m hoping to be caught up on all five by next year!
And of course…there are the connections. I love the connections I’ve made through blogging. I know I don’t stop and comment often enough and yes, it’s important and takes less than a moment to say “great post”, “love the artwork” or "thanks for stopping by”. I know how much thought goes into your postings, and how much talent and expertise goes into the creativity. I always feel very honoured and privileged that you’re willing to open your souls and be vulnerable, both with your words and your art and I appreciate and respect that.
So thank you all for sharing your lives, your talents, your deep thoughts, your humour, your interesting links, your darkest fears, your greatest hopes and your inspiring stories. I always look forward to hearing what’s happening in your world…the arrival of new grandchildren, books read (or published!), trips planned, art retreats taken and love found.
And I worry about you when you disappear for too long and feel a happy relief when I hear you’ve just been very busy. But there are times too when I’ve found that a husband has died, a painful divorce has devastated, a feared diagnosis was given and even a cyclone had hit. Although I’ve never met most of you, you’ve all become a dear and precious part of my life.
Thank you to each and every one of you for bringing such a rich fullness to these past five years.
