Year One is in the books

It has been one year today since I started this blog. At first I thought it would be a kind of business related one where I would be talking about career issues and dispensing the wisdom gained in twenty years of work in the field. HA! I even called it “Your Life’s Work”, a rather outer directed name.

It quickly changed into something else entirely. The name is now “My Life’s Work”, which is probably more accurate and certainly more inner directed. Now I realize that the purpose of blogging, at least for me, is to explore my own experiences and my feelings about them. Also, being a relationship oriented sort of person, it serves to meet new people and hear about their lives.

I have met many very nice people through this blog. A few nuts, yes, a few “nice nuts” as my mother would say, and some remarkable people doing great things just by being themselves. It’s fun to read about others’ lives, their dreams.

“Oh, the humanity!”, one might say.

Punch the “Next Blog” button for high adventure, or just check your regular commenters to see how they are doing. There is a blog by young woman in Amman, Jordan that I check once in a while just to keep my world view in shape. She kindly referred people to one of my recent posts. Of course, Rebecca is required reading if you need a lift. Darlene’s blog is actually the first one I ever read. Her stories are wonderful, as are those that John Cowart shares on his blog. Read about Suzanne’s adventures as a Suburban Lesbian, or the story of Wannabemom. Are you a fan of nurses? Then catch up with Third Degree Nurse and her friends.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but no blogroll would be complete without a mention of a sparkling young writer named Ann. I wonder where she gets all that talent. Nature or nurture?

The only thing that kind of gets me is the amount of time I could be spending doing this. The more exploring I do, the more people I meet and the more blogs I want to bookmark. Winnowing these is difficult since of course, I only pick the most fascinating and cool people to read. If I knew more about the tech aspects of setting up my blog properly, I would have a convenient list of the people I read. Surely Mirty will address this at some point in her special blog. (hint, hint).

There are more people I could mention, but this is enough to get you started.

There is one other thing that gets me: how honest to be in writing here. I’m afraid to be completely honest about my feelings, but at the same time, I find reading about others’ true feelings to be the most fun. My children read this, so there is some self censorship going on. The best introduction to a blog comes from It’s not exactly Pepperland. It goes like this: “If I know you personally and haven't invited you here -- well, there's a reason for that, so kindly go on back to whichever part of my life you belong in. Trust me, this is for your own good.” That makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t want people from work reading this. I don’t like certain people knowing a lot about me and my inner life. That’s why I took out my real photo and substituted a made up South Park character in my profile. (The character my daughter created for herself was so perfect, I had to try one.) If I am really honest, what will people think of me? So I struggle with that.

To all of you who take time to read and comment, thank you. That’s what makes it worthwhile, knowing that you are out there. I appreciate your sharing a little of yourselves. Makes us realize we’re all in this together.