Well there you go. This is the five-hundredth post. There are six thousand comments in all as I type. As for spam, 9,384 have been caught by my spam filter. That’s a lot of words. Mine and others. Some of the words are better than others. Without doubt.
While you are reading this I am off at work. Doing the other thing I do. The other me. Well one of me anyway. Then again you could be reading this while I am home, cooking a meal, nagging about homework, or faffing on twitter. Perhaps I am drinking gin. What would a 500th post be without gin?
So here I am at post five hundred. Here we are. Some of you have been here from the start. Others have come and gone along the way.
What I’m about to say is not startling. No revolutionary statements. But true nonetheless.
Blogging has given me voice. Granted I had one before, sometimes though it got lost. This little pocket of the internet gave me the nudge I needed to speak my words. More than that it gave me friends and a community. Ah, those old clichéd chestnuts.
Clichéd yes, but true all the same. Through this blog I found friends living just down the road. People I can call on, drop in on, lean on. People who I know can do the same to me. It also gave me friends across the country. People who when we meet natter like old friends. People who get the need to write things out, and over share on the odd occasion. People who don’t think it odd to take photos of inane objects, or to tweet while out and about.
Some days words have tumbled out. Spilt across the page mixed with hot heavy tears. I have asked for help, sought out comfort. Offered thoughts to those in need. I have met people I would not have otherwise.
I have learnt to rage quietly. Use words with caution and economy. I carry my heart on my sleeve. But some days I wrap it tightly and keep it quiet. Not everything is for public consumption. Not all stories are mine alone for the telling. There are days when subtext is more present than text. Days when words sit heavy and will not out. Days when self doubt slithers. This blog gave me back my running legs. Gave me words and a will to write. Taught me that sometimes the best thing is to say nothing at all.
And because this is my 500th post, I am going to keep it at five hundred words. I will drink my celebratory gin. Raise my glass and think of where I have been and where I am going. I will thank my little blog for the connections and friendships, the laughter and tears. I will end with a song. As is my wont. And then, when tomorrow comes I will post again. Because that, after all is what it’s all about.
It has been a busy week here. Work and school began again, along with routine. By Friday I caught myself trying to work out how many weeks I had been back at work, er that would be one. Yes, that’s how tired I am! Tiredness not just caused by being back in the work routine. I blame a little thing called le Tour de France, and in particular one Cadel Evans. Only two more nights to go!
But this week I am all about motivation, not how tired I am (especially as most of the sleepiness is self induced.) Motivation has been a little lacking, unless you include the motivation to procrastinate, of which I am a master. So this week I pulled my self together and got on with things. Sunday marked twelve weeks until the half marathon. It also marked the beginning of my twelve week training. It needs a little tweaking, but so far it’s going well. Having a goal and writing down what to do each day for me makes a huge difference.
For me though, the biggest breakthrough in motivation came from twitter and blogs. I was part of a twitter conversation about writing, and why you stop. Tweets about lack of time, self doubt, and the fact that attempting to write a manuscript is just bloody hard flew. The tweets were part of research for Bern to use in a post at So Now What. Two things stuck with me from the twitersation: Just write. Simple as that. It’s a draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be written if you in fact want to be able to edit and criticise. The second thing that stuck was from Al Tait, who encouraged us to write each day, but be realistic about it. Al attempts to write 500 words a day. For me, that is usually achievable, as long as I don’t stay up to the wee hours watching cyclists in France!
So, I explained to my family that I would be writing each day – not blog writing, not twitter writing *ahem* but my story. And that when I said I was doing that, I was to be left alone. Completely. Unless the house was burning down or there was real blood – not just a scratch mind you, severed limb type blood.
I have not managed to write every day – I need to be realistic. I have full days of work as well. But I have written some days. It felt good. Really good to be getting some of what is in my head out into written form.
So this week I am grateful for twitter, blogs, bloggers and motivation. And for an online community who support and encourage.
While Maxabella is on a well earned break, Beth form BabyMac is hosting weekend grateful. It’s a beautiful blog to visit, and she may even have some yummy baking left if you hurry!
Well there you go. This is the five-hundredth post. There are six thousand comments in all as I type. As for spam, 9,384 have been caught by my spam filter. That’s a lot of words. Mine and others. Some of the words are better than others. Without doubt.
