Why I Love Blogging

I hope I can get this in while it's still May 1!!

CUPIDS CHARM is having a party for bloggers to tell why we love blogging, and I didn't want to miss it!

But I have been sick this week, and my desktop died on me, too. I thought it had a virus, but it turns out the motherboard was bad. My computer geeks rebuilt my hard drive and replaced my motherboard and saved all my documents, pictures, and videos, and they did it all for $320.00. I got it back this evening and have been trying to find time to get it set up and do a bit of catch up. Andrew is using my laptop, and I haven't really felt like getting online most of this week anyway. But I just now checked my email and found where someone had dropped by via the Blogging Party, and I thought, "Oh No!" Today's the day!

So this isn't going to be as eloquent as I had certainly wanted it to be, but if anyone is interested, here is why I love blogging.

I started four years ago with AOL Journals, just pretty much on a whim. I have always loved to write and have always kept a diary or journal of some kind, and when I saw AOL Journals I thought it might be rather fun and a way to be creative. I really didn't think much about connecting with other people when I started. But a month or so into my Dusty Pages journal I got a comment. And then I was REALLY hooked!

I started visiting other journals and leaving comments, and then started getting comments in return. And before I knew it I was creating actual friendships with people I'd never met in real life. They were, and still are, real to me. My husband and kids have always been supportive and have never scoffed at my J-land (now Blogger) friends. They know many by name or by journal/blog name, are aware of where many of them live and even know some things about their lives. Jokingly, Thomas and I refer to my online friends as my "imaginary friends"; but there is nothing imaginary about them.

Pam, His1Desire, was an early read of mine, and I cherish the comments she left in some of my early entries. When she died I was as devastated as if she'd been a real-life friend that I had spent time with in the flesh.

I love blogging because I can write whatever I want, whenever I want, and I can address my entries to anyone or to no one. Some entries may be just a telling of my day's events, and they may be of no real interest to anyone but myself. But someone is going to comment on that entry, just to tell me that they're glad to hear from me or glad to hear I had a good day.

If I'm feeling like complaining I can do it here and get support or advice. If I feel like blowing my own horn or bragging on one of my kids, I'll get congratulations and a "way to go". I can tell funny family stories and really feel like I'm calling up my sisters and brothers and cousins and having a good laugh.

And that brings me to real family. I have a large and very close family. I really love my sisters to pieces and there is nothing they would not do for me or vice versa. But my blogging is really not for them. We have a family web site where we keep up with each other, and they know I have a blog. But they don't read it. It really isn't for them. They and I share a history that means that we love each other, hate each other, forgive each other and hold grudges with each other, all at the same time, if that makes sense to anyone. Does that make sense? Sometimes we bind each other to our relative pasts. And sometimes I want to write for myself and for someone who can't bind me to that past. Actually one of my sisters, Barbara, is welcome to read anything I write here, because she and I can have the type of conversations that blog posts might initiate between us -- and we DO have those conversations. She'd give me the same kind of feedback I'd get from my readers, and still allow me the freedom to be who I am at that moment and not compare that "me" with any other "me" they've ever known.

I guess what I'm saying is that blogging lets me be myself, but it's the "myself" that I want to be right then, and it's that "myself" that will be accepted by my Blogger friends at that time, no strings attached, no hurt feelings, no teasing that might actually hit a nerve. It's like a second family.

I have met one Blogger friend in person and truly enjoyed the privilege. I hope I get to meet some more in person. In the meantime, I love inviting all of you into my little blog "home", and I sincerely appreciate being invited into yours.

Well, look at that! I just almost got this in before midnight! Thanks for letting me share!