Giving Voice to My Astonishment

I’ve met a milestone here on WordPress. I’ve been blogging 6 months. While that might not seem like long to you, it’s a big deal for me. I’ve started other blogs; I kept them set to private. They were more like online personal journals. I had this blog for seven months before I plunged into it. As a writer, I feel there’s nothing more vulnerable than to write your words and send them off into the world. Why? It’s hard to put yourself “out there.” It’s difficult to share your thoughts, views, opinions, and perspective with others. It’s uncomfortable to think about making others uncomfortable. It’s scary to show your real self to the world. There’s fear of judgement: What will they think of me for saying that? There’s fear of humiliation: What if I’m ridiculed or belittled or shamed for sharing my personal thoughts and beliefs? And perhaps the worst case scenario: There’s fear of failure: What if not one person ever reads one of my posts? Ever. 

But what actually happened was I got a lot of kind, positive feedback from friends and strangers. I made new friends through my blog. I made many more contacts locally and globally. There are people out there who feel the same way as I do and I find that comforting and encouraging. Because as much as we are all different, and we are all different, we are much more the same. We basically want the same things: to be happy, to be free, to live lives of meaning, to be healthy, to help each other, and to stand together to create a better world for ourselves and future generations. We are good people, just trying to figure out this whole glorious mess we are in!

So I offer a heartfelt thanks to each of you who have read my blog posts, who have commented with kindness and support, and who have allowed me to do the thing that I enjoy most: writing, sharing stories, and opening up the conversation that speaks to our shared humanity. I am deeply grateful.

The saying goes, ‘Friends are the sunshine of life.’ I’d like to add to that.
Friends are the sunshine of life: a bright spot on a dark day, encouraging words spoken, an understanding presence in the midst of rejection and sadness, a hand reaching out all the way when we are too exhausted to reach out to meet them at all, a step up when we’ve fallen, many joys shared, truth given firmly yet gently, belly-shaking laughter, and unconditional love.