Daily Prompt Ramblings about Blogging

Why do we blog?  We all have different reasons.  We want to advertise our books, flex our fingers in sharing our inspiration, education or art form, or we simply want to journal our lives to give credibility to our existence and find likeminded pen pals.

I write my blog for the latter reason.  It would take me years to express to someone the things I’ve written about in my blog.  I’ve tried writing things in journals, and I’ve also tried creating private blogs.  But there’s something very affirming about knowing someone else’s eyes are reading my words.

It’s like taking a photo with a camera.  The capture of an image on a piece of paper transforms it from a single-person experience to a shared experience.  You wonder “What will someone else think of this?  Will they see the same things or somehow be touched by this?”

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound?  Similarly, if I died and didn’t leave a couple of blogs around the blogosphere, did my life made a sound?  Did I actually exist?

I don’t need nor do I want a big social life.  I don’t like people in my space.  Blogging (and gaming for that matter, although I haven’t gamed in ages.  No time or interest.) is a way I can meet people on neutral ground.  I spend an enormous amount of time reading other people’s blogs, mostly people who have interesting stories or poetry or quotes.  I read to learn and to be inspired to continue.

Lately I’ve been working on bringing my meditation into my daily life.  When I’m sitting at the computer, I’ll take moments and sit quietly, cross-legged on my chair.  When I’m walking the dog or waiting for Hubby to make his move on the game board I will work on mindfulness and being wholly present in the moment.

I practice reading blogs with a spirit of mindfulness, being present for whatever message the person is conveying.  The reading practice has been good for me, because I’m also reading books, and last night I read a couple of articles on the Buddhanet.net site which was like getting a dharma teaching.  Lots of blogs convey the teachings, and I often have to force myself off the computer to do my nightly yoga and meditating, I’m so inspired to keep reading and searching and learning.

Another thing about reading blogs is, I feel a connection to people.  Everyone is living their lives differently, yet we all have writing in common.  I feel a connection to everyone who is blogging.  It’s a daily process that we all go through, “What will I blog about today?”

I love the possibilities of blogging.  With this connection greater things are possible.  You just have to keep blogging and sharing and enjoying reading and learning about other people and other cultures.

So the answer to today’s prompt is, “I don’t choose to do just one or the other.  If I had to choose just reading or just writing, the process would be broken and I’d lose interest and go back to gaming.”

Morton’s Fork

Daily Prompt: If you had to choose between being able to write a blog (but not read others’) and being able to read others’ blogs (but not write your own), which would you pick? Why?

Thanks for the great idea, Courtney!