It’s almost overwhelming to realize that my blog has now been live and active for a year! I mean, I set out with the hope that it would continue to be a place for me to share written words, perhaps inspire others with those words and to propel my thoughts and feelings out into the universe. I know from comments on my blogs (major thank yous to those of you who comment!) that I do inspire some folks now and again, and that is truly the biggest gift that I get from writing it!

Though no blogger would ever turn down having a slew of followers and commenters, I didn’t think about that when I first set out on this venture. To be honest, I expected it to be like a ‘home sales’ project – you get your family and friends on-board out of, perhaps, some sense of obligation, but after that, you expect your growth to stagnate. And yet, when I look at the number and see that I have 123 followers, I realize that I may personally know 20 or 25 of them at the most! The rest of my followers are people who only follow me because something I’ve written along the way has brought meaning to them and they wanted to make certain to be present in case I write something in the future with meaning as well. To you, those people with whom I am connected only by technology, thank you for your support and belief that I have something good to say!

I’m certainly not someone who has made it a habit to post every day (bless those of you who can do that!), and my articles certainly are random and all over the place in terms of theme and content. I had no concept of how I would continue this blog – I’d only started it to share some of what I thought, and still think, were the best writings I’d ever done – and realize that what I’ve continued to write since then has often been a mirror of some moment in real time in my life. Someone says something that flips the switch to “on” for an idea that I want to explore further, and my blog posts become about that exploration.

At times throughout the last year, I thought that this blog might die off from neglect. To be honest, that is a fear I will probably carry on throughout this journey. When thoughts for article ideas aren’t sparked, I don’t know the magic button to push to make something mundane into a sustainable blog post. I don’t honestly believe I have a muse of any kind who is assisting me in that way. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the sparks of thoughts that come from interactions with other people (many of you follow this blog and know who you are!) in the daily course of life. To you, I say thank you for being a part of my life in a way that enhances my ability to write here.

To each and every one of you, thank you for hanging out here with me this past year! I am very grateful to all of you who take the time to read what I write. My blog is one drop in a bucket that contains thousands of really great writers and blogs, and I am humbled and honored to have the following that I do have! Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you!