Wednesday 29 April 2015

Y is for You... Yes... You...


Dear You
My actual finger finger pointing at actual you through virtual space
I need You to know how grateful I am that You stop by to have a look at what I have to say, and how much difference You, oh-great-and-wonderful-readers-of-my-blog make to my life. Truly ruly.
  
For many years, I made my scrunchy-nosed as-if face and a noise a bit like pffffftt at the mere notion of having a blog. Keep a journal, I said. Nobody cares what you think or do, I reasoned. Get a real life and don't bore others and clog up cyberspace with your stupid thoughts and feelings, I bossily advised myself. 

My attitude to blogging was a bit like this:




Or this:
© 2009 The New Yorker – Cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved.
But in November last year, that all changed. Yes, predictably, by the time blogging had become totally-last-century, I managed to wise up to its virtues. I'd like to call it the wisdom of aging, but that'd be a complete lie. I was just plain dumb-ass slow to catch on. 

And I'd like to pretend that over the years I'd become so happily addicted to reading scads of hilarious and informative and engaging blogs that I finally decided to bite the bullet and have a crack at joining their ranks, but that'd be another lie. I hadn't read any blogs until I started trying to create one.  Yep. Dumb-ass.

After I did the 30-day challenge last November, I wrote about how and why and what I felt about being a beginner blogger in a post I called The Blog of Eternal Stench. Well, here I am almost at the end of April, and another month-long blogfest challenge, and although I haven't travelled very far down the road to achieving the blogosphere's definition of success —  I still only have the number of followers you could count on one hand— I have leapt ahead in my understanding of how much it means to me that there is a space for me to write into.

Having even a tiny audience is a joy. I'm not trying to run a business or sell my books or promote myself through my blog. I'm just loving have a space into which I can throw my voice so that somebody hears it. Written expression is integral to me being me. I need to carefully arrange specific words in particular order to make sense of things. To connect with the world. To prove that I exist.

So when you pop over to to The Rock for a visit, I know I'm real. And when you leave me a message, I  do a little mental happy-dance. People. Contact. Yippee.
Thanks to You.
Wendy of The Rock

Song of the Day: Getting a bit schmultzy here with You are so Beautiful, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker live in 1983



Question of the Day: What is blogging to you?

12 comments:

  1. [I actually spent far too much time trying to work out if that was your left hand pointing or your right until I saw THE RING which was a whopping big CLUE and then I felt a bit stupid and thought I'd better not say ANYTHING. What evs...]
    Dear You, yourself. As we are about to embark on the last day, I have to say thank you for drafting me into the thing, being encouraging, and inspiring and giving me somewhere to come and hang out every day. It's a bit like Cheers! coming to the Rock. Thanks to YOU. xMe

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  2. I would like to say thank you to YOU! Your posts always have something to say whether it be funny, sad or heartwarming. You roped me into this challenge as well, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Me, you and Mary-Anne have come such a log way since we met in November on our blogging journeys. I am thrilled to have met you both and looking forward to the 'Three Amigos' next challenge!

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  3. I've loved stoppping by and reading your posts. I'm also someone that blogs just for me but it's great when people do stop by and comment. I've enjoyed doing this challenge because it's got me back into the habit and I'm determined to keep it up.

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  4. I love your posts! I am glad I found you through this challenge. I am embarrassed to say I didn't connect with people nearly as much as I had originally planned. But really, life has gotten crazy here, and reading blogs just hasn't had the pull it once did. Yours, however, is one I will keep following. Cheers! We made it!!! :D

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  5. I already like you and this is the first post I've read of yours! Yeah, not too many people have been reading blogs in the challenge...the new followers I've gotten have been as a result of me reading theirs first. I've tried to read 5 a day but we bought a house, so this month has been crazier than I'd realized!

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  6. YOU. YOU, my dear, are a rock, and a star so that makes YOU a rock star!!
    So glad YOU roped me into this challenge. So glad we met last November. So glad for the blogging world.
    Keep putting your words out there - I think YOU have more followers than YOU know.

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  7. Love your blog Wendy and so glad you are writing it.

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  8. Thanks to you too Wendy. You are the ultimate (and often the only) encouraging commenter.
    Do you think I can get P-Z finished today?

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  9. i loved this post so much. You have such a fun sense of humor. I think this one helped me understand my own blogging a bit better. This blog challenge has definitely improved my blogging. I'm so glad I found your blog and I look forward to much more. So thank YOU.

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