On Blogging....

Recently, I read a goodbye from a long-time blogger that I have loved reading: her entry explained why she was leaving the world of regular blogging.  I LOVED her personality, her deep faith, her beautiful family and her lovely home.  I will miss her.  She was from the deep south and had a way of writing that was warm and just drew me in.  She was down-home in every sense of the word.

If you are on the outside looking in, (unless you have a blog) you may not know how it works.   Pictures are taken.  Then edited.   Then uploaded.  Writing (and rewriting and more editing!) and photography can take a little time.  I probably spend an hour a day. 

I have the opposite problem of this blogger who left us, and I wanted to explain it.

Her blog turned out to be a burden, while she was at her computer, she felt like the whole world was passing her by.  She was tired of thinking of what to write about.  And, she grew weary of "staging" things or people for photos to blog about.

But blogging, to me, is a gift, that is amazing, (still!) to me, and I'm turning into my fourth year.

I am someone who has always had a camera with me anyway, and would be snapping lots of pictures whether I had a blog or not.  (Just ask my family, they can attest to this!)  I am more motivated to snap away, but it's nothing I would stop doing if I didn't have a blog.

I am a writer at heart, and cannot believe the good fortune that this is the modern age, and a day when I can be a self-published author through the wonder of an easy-to-use blog platform, (easy enough even for me--a techno-dunce to use), and that I have this web, with a network of blogs all around me, so rich in inspiration, ideas, thoughts.  It's a whole new world out there.


I am able be a part of it all just by jumping in-- and sharing what I hope you will think are beautiful pictures--because I enjoy finding beauty in the every day.

To me, blogging is just two things I LOVE --"snappin' and yappin"--seamlessly going together, now that is a gift, an outlet for my heart and my "art".   


To me, writing and photography is something awesome--and that they can go TOGETHER like this?  A marvel.  


I have more posts written than I have ever published, taken more pictures than I have ever uploaded to blogger.  It's rare when I stage anything, I may have done so once or twice.   If I'm putting up a recipe, it's photographed while I cook for my family.  If I have found a vintage item, it might be put on the porch railing, the dining room table, the grass, where ever the light is good.

One of the most surprising and wonderful things about blogging, and to be honest, quite unexpected....is to have found that my blog has been very good for keeping in touch visually with my daughter who lives in a state that is 750 miles away.  


This is a place for her to check in at home and "see" what's going on.  I feel it keeps us closer.  She can "come home" with a click of her mouse.  That's why I try really hard to keep this place warm and cozy.


(The worst part of blogging is wondering what your neighbors or family think ...do they see me sometimes laying on my back in the ditch to get that sunset shot?  It's nerve wracking, only when I wonder what the people that I know think of it!)


Do they think it's strange to have a web address for my old house?  Or WHY people would read about my (BORING) life?  Do they want to shoot JuneBug?   When I gush about the big old tree out front, do they wish it would blow down already so they didn't have to deal with its leaves every fall?

BUT...
I ain't stoppin' anytime soon.

I LOVE writing.

I LOVE taking photos.

I LOVE editing photos.

I LOVE to tell stories.

I LOVE to get to know new people.

Blogging is not a burden to me and I want you to know that I feel lucky that you stop in on a regular basis to check in and see what this bland Midwesterner might be blathering on about.  


I cannot believe that visitors stop in here from all over the world as well as the United States.  Just last week, my counter told me I had over 5400 visitors in that week alone.  Unreal.  Since I began keeping track more than a year into it, the odometer is clicking over to 150,000 that have peeked into this little magazine on the web.

I just feel so lucky to have an audience for all those pictures I would be taking anyway.

And, that you would read the words I write?  I am amazed.

 

THANK YOU.


YOU are the reason this all works.


Without readers, would I blog?


I don't think so.


I am so glad you stop in!
Come on back anytime.


XOXO
Joni