Celebrating One Year of Blogging

It was one year ago in January that I created my blog and published my first post.
And as our calendars flip over to February, it’s clear that the date itself, January 13, wasn’t particularly remarkable for me. But knowing the anniversary was passing caused me to look back and reflect. And as I did, I was reminded of how simply it began, as a desire to display photographs and art and write about nature. And I see what it has now become, an interactive community of mutual sharing, learning, mentoring and inspiration.

And so to celebrate my first year, I want to highlight for you, in this post and the next, two aspects of blogging that have become particularly important to me and inseparable--the stage and the inspiration it provides.
The stage of course is the blogging platform, a place to "perform", to publish your writing, your photographs, your artistic endeavors, whatever they may be, to an audience that remains largely anonymous but that can span the globe. It makes the sage advice, “You make your stage. The audience is waiting”, spring vividly to life.Every stage we create has something to give us. We step forward, find our courage. We practice and make our mistakes. We change and we get stronger, not just on the blogging stage, but in every aspect of our lives. We learn as we create and we learn as we experience the stage, whether it's this stage or any other we have selected.I was recently talking with a friend who is a published author and artist, and said, “I haven’t done one thing toward publishing my novel. It just sits there along with the writer’s market books that are stacked on my buffet and I do nothing.”
“Well, why not? Why aren't you getting it out there?” he asked.
“Umm…avoidance, I think. I’m shy.”
“You’re shy? What do you mean you’re shy? I’ve never seen that in you.” We stared at each other. I finally spoke.
“I don’t look shy. It’s what we sometimes call counter-phobic in the mental health field. Everything I love requires that I be on stage. So I push myself out there until I make it look easy, but it’s really not.”
And that is one of the many ways this stage has become important to me—practice. We create, we let the world see what we have to say and then we’re stimulated to create again by the very stage we dance on. It’s an energy that feeds itself. We get some feedback and we have some control. But most of all, the more we practice the more courage we have to say what it is we have to say and to show the world who we are through our passions and creations.
Next post: The inspiration in blogging

Photos from top to bottom: Greater sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache (more in an upcoming post); Golden-crowned kinglet in watercolor (also upcoming); possible female rufous or broad-winged hummingbird in New Mexico; a stack of writer's market books; me (right) with Natalie Goldberg (2008), who doesn't like photos, but isn't shy about her teachings; writing and hiking buddies in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico (2008).