Art Postponed...Hat tip to ArtsyMama for pointing this out to us. I used the Catalog Card Generator to make up this card.
Isn't if fun in a kind of geeky old-school library way?? Unfortunately, overnight I've changed my plans for today so this card will have to be filed for another time.
Blogging And Connections...
Have you read Melanie McMullen's blog? I love when she posts her handwritten morning pages as her blog entry. Go read it now. I'll warm myself another cuppa coffee while you're gone. SO COME BACK.
When I've done TAW in the past, the morning pages were the worst part of the experience. I'd get up, sit at my desk, and start writing. By the time I was half-way down the first page my eyes were closed into the thinnest of slits, my head was almost on the surface of the desk, and my mind was fighting the process all the way.
Torture!
It was sheer torture!!
Obviously I rarely connected in a meaningful way with the page.
Anyway, to the point. In her latest entry, Melanie is pondering ways to bring the connection of blogging to more women. Gee, a topic that I can get behind!!
When I first started my blog I did not know anything about blogging. I didn't know other blogs, read other blogs or feel part of a community. What I wrote ended up being only for me and I soon stopped using it. Then in January of 2005 Diane began the Artful Quilt Blogring. I was the eighth blog approved. How I still covet that single digit position. (rational? No. Merely timing. But with 229 blogs present now.. that single digit is important to me ). I am a nominally good participant.. regularly checking that the blogs just before and after mine are still there. They are... though Cheryl hasn't written anything in a few months. Does anyone what's up with her?? I am not a good participant... I rarely read through the entire list anymore or comment on the newer members blogs.
Anyway, joining a group began to build community. For a long time I would check each and every new blog entry in the ring. I'd comment on a lot of posts. I even made a few friends through the experience (Hi Gerry and the oft AWOL Gabrielle!!)
As I had spare time I would peruse other people's blogrolls and see who they were reading. I expanded my own sphere to include the likes of Grace Davis, Laurie at Crazy Aunt Purl, and Pam at Beancounters. I've commented on their blogs and come to meet them in real life.
I crashed at Grace's house during the first WoolfCamp and had Pam as a roomie at BlogHer. I drove to Sacramento to have lunch with Gabrielle, and to Santa Rosa for some fiber fun with Gerrie. Someday, I want to get winey drunk and giggly with Laurie!! I need an excuse to head down to SoCal to do so. (yeah, Del.. I hear ya!)
I've read people's lives online and then come to know them in real life.
All women.
Me.
I am a woman who has never had many female friends. Maybe one or three. I've spent hours listening to their break ups and work problems. Yet when I've had my own problems, they were usually busy with other things. Friends have not been there for me when I needed them most. I learned not to expect much friends.
After I moved to California, I managed to get invited to join the most significant group of women I've known in my life: My Pickle Pals. What a group of friends like this could have meant to me in my early years, but.. looking back isn't a game I'm playing today.
Since I've begun blogging, others have come to know me and I them. And I've found myself thinking that I have an ever-expanding passel of female friends. If I were to win the lottery, one thing I'd do is travel the world to meet you all in person.
Now after this sloppy-kiss salute to ya'll, comes the real question: I know that the blogging community is open, rich and supportive. What specific steps can we suggest to Melanie to help in her quest to get more women to understand the value of blogging? Often it's the old saw: Try It!! You'll Like It!! But what would you recommend to convince someone??
Let's have some conversation here!
Check out my other blog: Deb's Daily Distractions where I discuss weird energy invasions.
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