I found this really good blog, thanks to the WordPress theme. They had posted an excerpt of it on the main challenge-page, but I read it in its entirety. It really spoke volumes to me. This is what I love to do … to write these little pieces here every morning. I have no ambitions of becoming a writer, like many others I read … I just feel that it’s good for me.
Most of my adult life, I’ve kept some type of diary. Sometimes, I’ve written long entries, other times just jotted down a line or two. I used to keep it in my purse so that I could do it regardless or where I was. This kind of stopped when Internet came into play, and I discovered blogging. All those books are stored away in a box somewhere in Sweden.
One thing I did use to notice about that was that when things weren’t going very good, I wrote much more. We’ve all had times in our lives that weren’t all that rosy — life sure has its ups and downs and that’s the beauty of it! The tougher the times, the more I wrote. Not only in my diary, I also had a friend who — like me — liked to write letters. Boy, did we ever write! She died in 2003, and it turned out she’d stored all those letters in a binder. Her mother gave it to me, and I was amazed to see how much I’d produced.
I do remember how, almost physically, good it felt to sit down back then with stationery and pen and go at it. Couldn’t put words to it then, but I realize now that it was good for me. My thoughts and ideas got more structure to them when they came down on paper. Knowing the person, to whom you’re writing, of course also helped a great deal!
Blogging is different. After all, you do write for the public. They asked in the beginning of this project, ‘do you hold yourself back?’, and yes, I do. I know I have a tendency to forget that it’s public and get too personal. Personal can be good, but my issue with it is that I tend to cross the fine line. Surely, I want to convey what kind of person I am, up to a point … and that’s the key word here: up to a point. I believe it gets funnier for the readers if they get to know the person a little but then again I don’t want to blurt out my innermost feelings either … just as I don’t in real life — I’m a rather private person.
When I bought this domain name and set up self-hosted WordPress, I had no idea what really was going to become of it. Had some loose ideas about a photo blog, but then again I would have limited myself to just that. I know I want to write too. This happened to coincide with the Daily Post challenge so the timing couldn’t have been better.
I hope you take time out to click on that link here above — that post, I found, was really well-written and thoughtful. It reminded me of all the benefits of writing, it was like confirmation of my own thoughts. One thing he said, though … «It is also the best way to create a legacy that is more permanent than almost anything else, what other legacy can you create that is as permanent as the written word?» …one could always discuss. It could become a legacy for as long as you pay for the domain, or make sure to back it up in one way or the other. On a free blogging platform, it’s a legacy for as long as that blogging site exists. Now … I don’t expect WordPress to go belly-up anytime soon, but you never know. We, who used to blog in Yahoo 360°, know how quickly things can change!
On a totally different note: Can you believe it … I’ve been blogging here in WordPress for years, and not until right NOW have I noticed that underneath the box where I type, there’s a word count! Right now it says Word count: 700. Ha ha! What a revelation! 🙂 I’ve often seen people mentioning how many words they’ve written, but I thought they all used some editor like Word or something.
colderweather2011 
Thank you for the Wordle link. I put one on my blog…This was a neat post.
Linda,
Thank you 🙂 The most frequent word gets to be biggest so that would be *I* in my case 🙂
I have always liked writing. Maybe because I’m a bit on the shy side, and it’s sometimes easier to write than to talk.
You asked how long I had been blogging and the answer is that I started when I retired, in January of 2010. I didn’t think that I would like it as much as I did. Most of my followers have just kind of shown up, though, on occasion, I will click on links on other people’s blogs and meet new folks that way. If you check the blogs I follow, you’ll see I’m kind of heavy into the “critter” or “nature” blogs.
Louise,
Sometimes, I think so too…
I have looked a little at them, and what struck me was that most of them seemed to live on farms.
Writing is therapeutic! From my own experience I know how much it has helped me to express myself; not being much of a talker, writing is a great asset to me.
I love the extract you mention from the Daily Post Challenge “it is also the best way to create a legacy that is more permanent than almost anything else, what other legacy can you create that is as permanent as the written word?”
How true is that!
I too notice that when life sucks, I write many pages in my journal!!! And not all of it is pretty! With blogging, if life gets ugly, I tend to withdraw and not blogg. I learned the hard way not to open myself up. There is ALWAYS someone waiting to rain on your parade or make fun of how you feel. I keep a lot inside. And do that in real life. Most people simply do not care so I do not share. I have a couple of friends I can be honest with but no one else.
I had noticed the word count thing. No idea why I would notice though.
Julie-Ann,
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel too about ‘when life sucks’. First of all, in those cases, I would have a hard time coming up with any blog topic, because I wouldn’t want to write about how I really feel and nobody’s interested anyway. Even if there were somebody who cared, I hate to be pitied anyway.
I, too, hate pity. I would like someone to care enough to maybe just spend time with me — lunch or coffee or just sitting in the park to talk. I hate when someone says 'oh you poor thing'. Well, yeah, but what good does that comment do? I keep a lot inside which is not healthy. My journal helps release all those feelings. Would be awful to blogg about it.
Right! A good, sound talk with good friend who has a good head on his/her shoulders … that's one of the best things at times like that.
Great piece…I have only been doing this really since last July & love it. I did play with it a few years back on Live Journal but never like I do now here on WordPress. I can't see anything ever stopping me….I enjoy it so much & also enjoy all the cool blogging friends that I have met like you. Your pictures are always great, but glad you wanted to write too. Good stuff!
Jason,
Yeah, it’s really cool … this was the best WP could have come up with. Blog on! 🙂
I have been writing since new year and I never thought that I would enjoy as much as I have. Its great thinking of a idea for a story or poem, working on it and having it turn out how you want it. And some times they do not turn out how you want them to, but some times they lead to other projects and thats pretty neat.
Also my natural way has always been to hand write everything first. The final blog posts are different but the basis is always there. Unless my pads get flooded with water or something similar.
Great post.
Hello, and thank you for stopping by and commenting!
I’ve been blogging, on and off, for a number of years. Sometimes I miss writing by hand — I so used to enjoy writing letters, but I just don’t seem to get around to it anymore.