It's MY time. I don't blog to benefit anybody but me. I could, but I don't make money with this little hobby. I just write, tweak, add pictures, and visit a few other blogs. And I am not willing to give it up. It may not make much sense to my family, but I really do need this outlet, even if no one were to ever read anything I write.
My blogging adventure started out as a way to network with other people. I was lonely over there in Germany, and I just needed "something" to connect to others. I found it...and then some. After a month or two, I wasn't doing it just to share pictures anymore. It was truly a means of clearing my mind, getting my thoughts out of my head, and even categorizing daily life for myself so when I went back to scrapbook those events, I had a written recollection instead of just vague memories.
I saw a t-shirt the other day that I told Pete I simply "must have". It said, simply, "I blog, therefore I am." How true, how true. He didn't get it. He said it was silly. But yet I can understand so well why that sentiment makes perfect sense. Blogging, at least for me, is a way to keep in touch with what makes me "me". And it's all mine. I scrapbook for more than just selfish reasons. Sure, it's a great hobby, and I truly enjoy my time at my scrap table surrounded by glue, pictures, papers, and embellishments. However, I'm not the only one to benefit from that hobby. I use my time scrapping to catalogue family history, to preserve moments in time for future generations; and already, at least one future generation is benefitting from my efforts. My girls love to sit with a scrapbook and talk about the stories behind the pictures.
Not so with my blogging. There are things I blog about that most people (yes, MOST) would not even know about me. But I'm not writing really for "their" benefit. It's for me that I write. I'm thrilled that anything I write can encourage or entertain anyone else, and I'm just tickled pink to have so many visitors to my blog, but I'm mostly thankful that I have this means of self-expression that I normally would not have. I feel freer to open up my mind and just...oh, I don't know, let all the fodder flow from brain to keyboard. Some days what's in my mind is ridiculously silly, other days I am pondering some great quandry of life, and on yet other days my heart is hurting and I just need to "get it out". I love my blog time. It's therapy for me, and it only takes a precious few minutes a day!
I'll continue to be selfish with my blog time; it's good for me, and it's one of the very few things I can claim as "mine".
3 comments:
I love this post!! Exactly my thoughts as well. :)
I've enjoyed finding your blog w/ the SL list. I just about wrecked my whole blog the other week trying to tweek it too. I feel your pain there! However, I love the look of it today! :) Good job!
It looks great! And even though I do make money and get great products blogging, I blog solely to fill a need in myself. It just helps me be me and to KNOW who that is.
Before blogging, I was caught up in mothering and things and just was lost to who I am outside of that. Now I can have that piece of me every day, more often if I need to.
Most men don't get that because they get to be themselves all the time. They rarely have to squash who they are to be what is needed around the house.
Cool post and so true - I'm finding it difficult to balance blogging and scrapbooking, let alone work and home schooling :)
I back my blog posts up with MacJournal so I could always recreate if I had to :( But it is actually more for me to make sure I don't lose those journal entries as that is how I see my blog. An online sharable journal.
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