A blogging friend who is ill is questioning whether or not to blog about her bad days or if she should maintain a cheerful facade for her blog followers. And that got me thinking about the way I've blogged over the past year.
My original intent when I created my blog was to document our travels after I had written the umpteenth e-mail to friends and family reiterating the same information for each one, yet trying to make each e-mail personal, also. That's when I decided to start a blog so that I could share the sights we'd seen and the things we'd learned and I would be able to keep my e-mails short and personal. And that's pretty much what the blog was about until late in 2005 when my mother had a health issue and we flew home on an emergency basis. And then there was my shattered kneecap and recovery in mid-2006 and then my FIL's death and dealing with his estate last year and now my mother's death and dealing with HER estate right now. So the blog became my catharsis and my way of sharing what was going on when making a phone call would have been too much to handle. And the support I've gotten from people I've never met has been wonderful and has buoyed me in ways I could never have imagined.
Maybe some readers have disappeared because Denny and I aren't traveling and the blog at this point isn't a travelogue. That's okay, because at some point this summer or fall it will be once again. But for now, as my sister-in-law likes to say, "it is what it is". Good, bad or indifferent, this is where we're at right now and that's what the blog will document. But I know that there will be pictures of mountains and lakes, tales of geocaching and stories of flat tires and minor disasters related to the RVing lifestyle in our future. And there will be cheese with my whine. Bet on it.
3 comments:
Thank you my friend. You will never know. :)
I think blogging about our hard times makes us human and is a good therapy. But I also know that at times, like currently, it seems hard to blog at all as life catches us up in too many things! I decided to make myself do a photo at least every day this month because my blog was growing so stale! I've lost a lot of readers but that is okay. I like being small.
Linda, I like your blog just like it is! The accounts of the hard times make your travel blogging even sweeter! Don't we enjoy the good stuff even more when we have suffered and needed the light at the end of the tunnel?
Tell you friend to share her struggle. We are all made stronger by the community around us, physical or virtual. It wouldn't be fair to her readers who feel connected to her if she didn't share. Just my 2 cents :)
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