It’s here! The blog that marks my year of blogs. A job done. A goal achieved. What now?
It’s felt a bit strange today. I’ve done something I’m really proud of. My writing has been happening for a full year. I have written every day rather than the monthly articles I started in June 2015. My Guides knew I needed to be challenged so they got me warmed up by doing pieces for Valley Life before the hit me with the big one. Whizzing out of cyberspace I got an invite from my lovely friend Jan to join her in a 30 day blogging challenge. And I said yes. Now I’m a year on and amazed that I had all those words inside me. I have to say I don’t feel like I’m done yet either.
That’s why I find myself paying attention to my day much more. To what I say, see and hear. Noticing the things that I get caught up in, or distracted by or get her up about. Not all of those things make it into my blogs. But most of them do. As I think about my day I’m looking for how I can be and do better. Ways that my ego has got free and bitten me on the bum. Times when my patience has failed. The deeper inner conditioning that drives me along in directions I don’t like. Dipping into my blogs over the last few days to sort out the number count I realised how far I had come. And how far I still want to go. Because that’s the payback. I want to be the best me I am capable of being.
However, until I started to talk to myself through my blogs I suspect a part of me thought I was done with developing me as a person.
There is a bit in all of us that resists change. I’m sure that I could find it easier to be blind to my flaws or insecurities. Certainly it would take less energy to be self-aware. In the end though would I want to stay stuck in the personality I had years and years ago. I’m certain I wouldn’t. That’s because I’m not living the life I did all those years ago. I’m a different me in a lot of ways. It’s just than now I want to keep improving on the me I am now. Seeing my daily pieces shows me that I have been on an interesting (to me) journey. I was advised to blog about something I knew. Who else knows me if not me.
When I think of the debates I’ve had with myself, of the questions I’ve thrown to my Higher self or to my Guides, I’m glad that I had them. Being human is hard. There are days when I’m not nice by my standards. And days when I’m not nice by other people’s standards. Sometimes there are days when my Spirit shines through and magic happens. I want more of the magic of being human. I would like to live in a world where all of us recognise that we throw our energy out into the communal pool. Where we aim to put out only positive, peaceful and loving energy. And that we do it because we have changed the inner self as much as possible to respond to each other and life from our Spirit. That would be one hell of a Light world to enjoy.
I’m done for tonight. Come back for more tomorrow and let’s see if we can shine our Light together.
Day 365 of my blogging challenge.
Annie,
I can’t believe this. You’ve been blogging for a year?
I want to do a story with you. This is fabulous. Can we Skype tomorrow?
Let me know,
Emma
Fabulous, Annie!!! I am so, so admiring of you and while I have not read every post, I do notice every single day that you, and your Guides, are present and that you stayed the course. You are completely inspiring! I am so with you on throwing our energy into a communal pool and being and shining Light…yes, yes, yes. Don’t stop writing!
Annie,
I admire you for going beyond the 30 Day Content Challenge. I embarked on it one year ago. I wrote past it for about 2 to 3 days if. Then, I dropped it. It’s not that I had nothing to write about, but the pressure of daily writing almost killed me.
At times, I was catching up like four days at a time. Sometimes I just slacked off and posted a photo with a cutline, even though later I returned to it to write a full blown post.
What you had done is like writing a book. I mean a page a day and you have a book; I think Stephen King said that.
I have trouble not with persistence but with consistency. I get bored and tired of the same thing very easily. That is physically and mentally.
I too have greatly benefited from the challenge, both in subject matter and self-awareness. I have attracted new followers.
I wish we could do another challenge.
What do you think?
I think doing it on your own is too hard. I’ve tried that and it didn’t work out for me.
Talk to you soon,
Emma
Thank you Annie for inspiring all of us.
It was lovely to talk to you today Emma. Sometimes it seems like I’ve been blogging for such a short while but then a whole year. Wow!
Thank you Dawn ? I have found my writing voice and I love it. I hope to keep going as long as possible and encourage everyone to give it a go too.
Yes Dawn, I think it is hard to keep going with something when you feel you are on your own. When we set off on the challenge I found doing it via a group helped me stay motivated. This was not the first time I started a blog and in earlier attempts I soon found it less fun and more like a punishment. So my attempts to keep it going failed. The fact that other people were also involved was a great help as I felt there was more point to writing than before. I also felt it was a way to write a book too. If only I could get into blogging on a daily basis. Perhaps that was also an additional motivation.
I’ve found out that writing is hard when it’s not what you want to do. I’ve found that writing is hard when you feel it’s another task amongst many. I’ve found that I can’t write unless I find my authentic voice. Many nights in the last year I wondered what to write about. I got stuck. Got unstuck. Got to the point of giving up. But the thing that stopped me was my writing voice. It needs to speak. And I’m determined to honour it. I hope that other people will find their voice too as we have so much to say that stays hidden.
Here’s to our next challenge. Speak soon ???
Dear Annie,
It was great chatting with you. I hope we can talk next week some more about what you do and what I do, and how we can mesh that together perhaps in a new blogging challenge.
I find it extremely difficult to write on daily basis under my own pressure to complete whatever I set out to do.
The group challenges help with the support and a lot more. I met so many friends from different walks of life on Bradley’s 30 Day Content Challenge.
Today, as we approach Thanksgiving in the USA, I am grateful for the challenge and the people that I have met; like you Annie. You have enriched my life and you have fueled my inspiration.
You are my moral support when I struggle to write and that is not even having a writer’s block.
It feels like a huge commitment putting your thoughts out, but it is important to keep on doing that.
I keep telling my husband that 100 years from now we will be known as a generation of bloggers and posters and texters…and on and on.
Maybe there is a benefit to all of this that I fail to see immediately as I am bombarded by materialism from all sides.
More later. Thank you, Annie for writing.
Emma
Hi Emma, thank you for commenting so honestly about writers block and the purpose of blogs. I believe that the internet has opened us up to the opportunity to listen to new voices and be exposed to new ideas. Learning about each other through our blogs removes the idea of us and them. It shows us that people the world over have the same issues and concerns. The skill is in putting out your authentic voice. And in being able to screen the endless chatter by locking in on those voices that feel authentic. I skip blogs where the subject matter is false, selling me something or shouting out ‘look at me’. Because there are some fab bloggers who tell it how it is for them. They make me think. They make me feel. I open my mind and discover interesting stories. That’s why a blogging challenge is such a good idea. Those who might not have a voice get a voice. Those who are struggling might feel inspired. And those who find their true voice can help us change minds, which changes hearts and eventually the world.
Another comment on Peacefully Painting Angels, from Paul, is “it’s very sad to my way of thinking, that creative activities we do naturally as children, are seen as a luxury rather than essential for our Wellbeing.” I agree with Paul. Writing is also such a powerfully creative activity. As children we use our imagination to explore or view the world in a very different way from the way adults see the world. As we fit into the social framework we stop looking at the world as a magical place full of possibilities. We end up in a world of rules and fear. Yet if we can return to writing we are once again allowing ourselves to be creative beings. Journals, blogs, diaries, stories, poems, songs. So many ways to explore both our inner and outer world. To share things with others and help all of us to see that we are inside the Matrix trying to free ourselves and get out. I hope that in a hundred years people see blogging as the beginning of a creative shift. A way of bringing writing back to ordinary people so that they can play, create, inspire. Writing is not about a classic story. It’s about your story. It has value to those who read it and can identify with it or be challenged by it. Who knows what marvellous voices there will be in a hundred years time. But perhaps our efforts to create meaningful communication between each other will be the start of a whole better way of talking to one another.
As always Emma, your comments have given me food for thought ❤️️