How great that my 100th post falls on "Thank You List Saturday"!
No, I will not be doing the 100 things post. I think I've been giving everybody's "scroll finger" enough of a workout lately plus, really, there's no way I'm coming up with 100 things about me. Coming up with 6 yesterday just about killed me.
But I am so thankful for the blog world.
I admit that when I first heard about the blog concept I thought it was the height of vanity. I mean, who sits around spewing their opinions and personal details and expects an audience to log on and read it? I might have been struggling with judging people at the time.
But then a friend of mine moved way too far away and started a blog. And it was wonderful because even though we would call and email, the blog was a great way to keep up with her. Later my sister started a blog about her family's journey in the world of autism and talk about a blessing! I love reading it and knowing what a source of encouragement she's being to other families. But I never thought I had anything to write about that would be of any interest to anyone (that's actually still true).
Back in April I started to re-enter the world after a long season of depression and as part of the healing process I started my own blog. I began without any intention of telling anyone about it and was amazed at how good it felt to write again. Seriously, blogging is great therapy. I slowly started telling some family and friends about the blog and noticed an amazing thing: the more I reached out in the blog world the more I reached out in my person to person relationships. Again, blogging is great therapy.
Blogging is also an efficient way to chronicle my kids' lives. I'm not a scrapbooker and I'm terrible at writing in my kids' baby books so blogging is helping me record some of my favorite memories with the kids. I hope that when they are older and read the archives they'll see how much those little moments we've shared have meant to me. I'm sure I'll read over them too with tears in my eyes recalling what a joy my family has been.
Above all, the blogging community has been a blessing. I've met so many women through the blog that I wouldn't have ever had the chance to meet this side of heaven. I've also reconnected with some old friends - what a joy! I love, love, love reading other people's blogs. There are some like It's Lovely, I'll Take It and Cake Wrecks that give me my daily chuckle. Others like We Are THAT Family and Books and Bairns bless me with their honesty and transparency. Rocks in My Dryer, in addition to being just plain great, has a wonderful series called "What I Want You To Know" where guest hosts share their perspective on things like adoption, having a spouse serving in the war, and health issues from personal experience. There are so many others, but I won't name them because my family would stage an intervention when they realize how much time I spend reading blogs. But it's time well spent because these women have taught me so much.
So that's what I'm thankful for today. I love this whole new world that has opened to me and all the wonderful women I connect with through it.
Have a great day and thanks for being a part of my little blog!
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5 comments:
I remember seeing your name somewhere, on Lisa's blog or something but I can't remember (sorry... can I blame old age?). I'm being lazy and don't want to go back and look, but would like to think of you by your name instead of Tree Dweller though I don't think you mind that so much... sounds kinda Ring-ish (as in Lord of the Rings) if you know what I mean. Mine's Cheryl... but you probably have a better memory than I do!!
Hey Cheryl! I'm Lori.
Hey Lori!
Hey Lori-
Many funny things here...I'll try to keep it short. I have not had the chance to check blogs for FOREVER and I checked yours first!
My daughter is a cake decorating FREAK and just started a professional Wilton cake decorating class series. I sent her that link (after endless post checks, seems Ok?)
I cannot wait for her to "find" the email with the link. She is going to love it. We are already to the point of making cakes and just throwing them away! Ha!
I am tempted to get on to you about not abiding by the tradtion of 100 things but have to rib you a bit. The 100 things can be more telling even to YOURSELF than you know! I think you will be sorry you didn't...but it's your blog and you can not 100 post if you want to!
Lastly, I realized that by reading your links to great posts (I only saved one:We are THAT Family, we'll see if they can hang) that I realized that that is where I was heading with my blog. I LOVED blogging. But it was actually my hubs and I came to realize that helped us decide to buy the magazine! As I grew readership ,which of course felt good...when the magazine op came about, we just KNEW we could do it! And we are doing it well.
So I closed my blog so I could comfortably post instead of posting to the masses...and now I "post" to a readership of 34,000 and growing!!!!
My blog will always be my "first" magazine though...which all of you are really doing! You are writing with a readership.
I have to say it was wonderful to close down though....and just have the few....so I could remain true to self in a deeper way...I needed the blog to remain a place where I could say what can not be said in a comment section elsewhere....ya' know?
You still have to KNOW someone personally to get what they really mean on any given issue...when you are read by strangers, there is always the risk.
Anyway Tree Climber, this is the longest thing I have written off-magazine in a while.
Blessings to you on your 100th post.
P.S. As I was just signing off, I heard my daughter call out from my laptop (40th birthday present last month)"Cool Blog Mom"
I guess she found it. :)
I agree wholeheartedly--I have always hated writing but I absolutely love writing on my blog. It is really therapeutic and having an audience to please or displease motivates me. Every once in a while I think about quitting because it truly eats my time but I really don't want to. I just need to make time for it. I also love reading other's blogs. It's entertaining, encouraging, and enlightening. I absolutely love reading about people's lives.
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