Fifteen

Van Gogh: Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers

Maybe it's about it being near the start of a new year, but there seem to be quite a few 'blog birthdays' around this time and Sun Dried Sparrows has one too.  It's fifteen today!  Who'd have thought it could last so long? On reminiscing, I get a sweet feeling thinking about how my fellow bloggers and I have some very special things in common - that we all went through that decisive moment when we pressed 'publish' on our very first post and that we're still here. We share those experiences of setting up our blogs from nothing, introducing ourselves to an unknown audience, wondering about what, if anything, might evolve from it.  I imagine there will be some who were already comfortable with social media exposure but I wasn't one of them, so it really was oddly nerve-racking, quite exciting and very much an excursion into unfamiliar territory.  

What was it that prompted that first venture into blogging for you, if you do?  For me it was mainly a need to express a side of myself that wasn't getting quite enough of an airing elsewhere.  I wanted to natter about music and art, random interests and reflections on life, and to make it adult (desperately needing to offset the child-friendly side I present in my work...)  Having always loved writing I fancied flexing a few muscles in that department and, well, to just have some stimulus outside of the day-to-day which was purely my own, all with the added reassurance of relative anonymity and undeterred by my natural shyness.   I hoped too, though of course couldn't be sure, that there might be some supportive readers and that I in turn could be one to others whose blogs I admired and enjoyed.  Connection, yes.

And look where it's led.  I'm so lucky to have found, quite organically, a warm, safe and easygoing corner of the internet, happily away from the mainstream, where new friendships have been formed and sustained.  I can now vouch too from having met quite a few that those people are just as warm, safe, easygoing and happily away from the mainstream in real life, and I've no doubt either that those I haven't met are too. 

As with most things, this blog has changed quite a bit over the years and at times I wonder if I've anything new left to say or to do with it, but sometimes something turns up out of the blue. Even when it's a little neglected, I don't want to let it go.  It's here when I want and need it, and so are you.  Thank you, x

PS ~ Trying harder to post something at least once a month this year if possible...so far, so good!

Wire: The Fifteenth