“Reflecting on One Year of Blogging”

~ Elizabeth

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I began this blog last July largely in response to the poisonous political climate that then raged. I had no idea that Donald Trump would actually become President. Nor did I foresee how contentious the last year would be. Everywhere people seem angrier than a year ago. Long simmering racism, bigotry, misogyny and ignorance seem to have flourished.

When I began writing, I wanted to have a direct rebuttal to many of the ideas then coming into play, from scapegoating one ethnic group to lying and calling it “alternative facts.” What has actually emerged, during my year of writing, is something quite different and surprising for me. I began to write about my life over the last 70 years. As I did, much to my delight, people from around the world started reading what I was writing and responding to it.

At the same time, I began to read posts from a wide variety of people from around the world. I have formed on-line friends whose writings I look forward to each day. I have learned about political conflicts in Kashmir, typhoons in the Philippines, books in India, graduate studies in social work, raising a child with a syndrome new to me, retired police officers and many more things. Sadly, some of the younger writers I most enjoyed have stopped writing. I don’t know what inspired them to begin with nor what caused them to abandon the enterprise.

As for me, this on-line community encourages me each day to remember that there is much good in the world, that the United States is just one  part of the globe, and that hope is the best remedy for despair. Thanks to everyone who reads me and everyone who writes. I hope to continue to surprise myself with my next year of writing.

25 thoughts on ““Reflecting on One Year of Blogging””

  4. I know for the last few months I have enjoyed reading your posts, and earlier posts you had done. Blogging has a good effect on most, almost like it changes us. If we are lucky, we take on the good qualities of those we meet, losing our bad habits and mannerisms as we are exposed to new influences. I know I have learned to relax, and enjoy doing something that is good for me.

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    1. I think you have described it perfectly. I think that is why I didn’t feel that I kept on needing to be overtly political. I was being influenced by what I read and what I shared.

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  5. I had no idea your blog was so new. I thought you’d been here longer than me.

    A lot of the old blogs I followed when I first started have disappeared for me as well. Fun fact: 90% of blogs don’t make it. People just don’t stay committed, and life gets in the way..

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  8. I love this! I read these lines in M. L’Engle’s book, Walking on Water, today, “An artist is a nourished and a creator who knows that during the act of creation there is collaboration. We do not create alone.” I thought of your nourishing writing and also say thank you!

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  9. I love this! I read these lines in M. L’Engle’s book, Walking on Water, today, “An artist is a nourisher and a creator who knows that during the act of creation there is collaboration. We do not create alone.” I thought of your nourishing writing and also say thank you!

    Like

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