Today is a landmark day…my first ever blog now has twenty whole followers! That is so encouraging and yet SO scary! Yes, it is encouraging to think there are twenty people out there who just might actually read what I have to say, and it is extremely scary for the very same reason! Twenty people might actually read my stuff!?! Nonetheless, I am encouraged!

I’m a blogger. What’s your superpower? —Unknown

You see, I don’t want to be a good blogster (Is that a word? Let’s call it a Dori-ism), I want to be a great one…but a huge part of being either is the ability to combine passion, thoughts, feelings, knowledge, wisdom and understanding into written form in such a way that it makes sense to other people. This might be a good time to mention that my brain – where thoughts are all over the map – is a reeeeally scary place to live! Oh yeah, I’m talkin’ scary here! However, there are many times when thoughts are few, amounting to less than an apostrophe, or a comma, but I really like saying the word apostrophe so let’s stick with that. (See what I mean?)

Forget about someone’s resume or how they present themselves at a party. Can they blog or not? The blog doesn’t lie. —Nick Denton

So, here I sit day after day, sometimes with a full heart and empty screen…other times with an empty heart and a jumbled mess on the screen. And once in a while, sometimes twice in a while, something becomes blog-worthy…from my novice perspective, that is. I take the leap, post the blog and wonder if it will actually help anyone on their journey through life. You see, helping others matters to me. But even if no one else is affected, the process of moving ideas, feelings and thoughts to paper (or computer screen as it were) generally pushes me one step further on my journey as a writer…aka blogster. <sheepish grin> Eventually, it is just nice to know that someone else cares about something you pour your heart into.

I had a personal blog, but why does anyone care that I went shopping for hats? —Chris Hardwick

Reading other blogs, maybe yours, helps tremendously to see how other bloggers approach their thoughts and put them into story, and to glean from their expertise. And though I sincerely admire your knowledge, wisdom, wit and style, I also know the best lessons are those we walk, sometimes crawl, through ourselves. Just as physical growth doesn’t happen when one child watches his sibling eat and exercise, neither does practical growth. I need to feed my heart, soul and mind with information, then exercise the skill (Lord, help!) of writing firsthand in order to grow in writership. (Yes, I like to invent words.) Struggling through every blunder, along with celebrating each glorious victory, is what I believe is refining who I am and who you are as a blogger.

Everyone should have a blog. It’s the most dramatic thing ever. —Jessica Cutler

We’re all on this unpredictable journey called life together, walking side-by-side at times, walking alone at others. Either way, it is comforting to know that out there in Bloggerland, there are other wandering pilgrims…a-hem, bloggers…staring at empty computer screens or jumbled messes with puzzled looks on their faces wondering if any of it will ever make sense to anyone, even themselves, especially during run-on sentences! Growth can be painful, and though my stuff is definitely in the refining process, I truly thank you for not throwing the oil of discouragement into the fire. We generally do enough of that ourselves from what I can tell.

The bottom line…the likes, kudos, applause, even flattery at times, can lift the spirits of a novice (sometimes floundering) writer in a heartbeat! Yes, YOU have been such an encouragement to me…to like some of my stuff and to use some of your personal writing time to comment. I only hope that I can be as much of an encouragement to you on your journey, whatever that might be! So today I just want to say…Thank You! Gracias! Danke! Merci! Grazie! Toa chie! And hey, I like you too! —Dori 😊

P.S. I should also mention that I edit my own stuff…thus, the misplaced commas. But I really wanted to say apostrophe again, so I just did! 😀

©Celebrate His Love, 2017