Two Years Later: The Blog Challenge ….. Continues

two yearsTonight I’m going to take a moment to celebrate achieving a daily blog for two years. It’s a challenge I set myself that I wasn’t even sure I would complete. But I have.

Two years of a blog a day! Sitting down mostly last thing at night to decide what to write. Wondering if anyone was reading them. Imagining I might run out of things to say. Staring at a blank screen as the clock crept round to midnight. Wishing I hadn’t challenged myself. Yet determined to fulfil my promise to myself. I know I needed something big to break me out of a massive writers block. Because I also knew for a long time that I had at least one book in my head that needed to be written. Well it has been. And I’m now onto book two. All from asking myself to push a little bit further.

I’ve stopped worrying about whether my blog gets read or not. Because I’ve started to enjoy the words for their own sake. After one or two false starts I’ve realised that there is so much joy in expressing myself this way. My writing has become a wonderful thing to do to lift my mood. It keeps me clear of low vibrational energy. I can be me. The real me. And I know I am generally an optimistic, hopeful person. I’m so glad to have discovered that me again. In a way I think it’s sad that writing is taught in such a rigid way. Unless, like I did, you have a good teacher or two. Or even three or four. Now I encourage other people as much as I can.

Out of the same challenge four of us have written a book each. Maybe there will be more who find the power of words in the future. Of course, my challenge isn’t over yet. I set myself the total of one thousand and one blogs. Or maybe I could up it to one thousand and two. Who knows? All I know is that my writing challenge continues.

Day 730 of my blogging challenge

Six Hundred Days: It’s Been A Real Challenge

I’ve been very aware today that I have to write my six hundredth blog tonight. A long way from the thirty days I originally challenged myself. As each day has ticked by I’ve been surprised how I’ve stuck at it.

That got me thinking this afternoon as I stood on Stromness harbour. I watched six sail boats out in the wet weather practicing manoeuvres in the bay. Much more of a physical challenge than my writing. Then to visit the home of Eliza Fraser who was shipwrecked after travelling to Australia. Captured by aborigines she turned her challenge into a media show (or what passed for one in eighteen thirty six) and had an island named after her. A life full of all sorts of challenges then. Not least when it seemed she had really been rescued rather than captured.

I also found Login’s Well where many explorers took their drinking water on board before setting off. Arctic challenges, Hudson Bay Company ships sailing with trade goods, Caprain Cook off to discover new lands. Lots of brave people taking on the challenges of the sea. Now those places are as familiar to us as our own towns. Because of the words written about them. Also now because of the wide reach of the internet. I wondered what those pioneers would make of my life. Of most of our lives. I can take a large ferry across those seas. Big tankers ply their trade. My biggest challenge getting here has been to get on the right trains.

Better still I can fly across the world to any continent I wish. Is that six or seven? It depends on how you define them. That’s true about challenges too.

My challenge with my blogs is wrapped around words. It’s not particularly physical. But I’ve found it has stretched my emotions. Especially with my determination to stick with it on the days when my thoughts went into hiding. Or I felt like there was nothing noteworthy to write about. When I felt like no one could possibly be reading the blogs. And when I was working on my book as an extension of my blogs. Some days my writer’s block was overpowering. Yet I needed to keep going.

This evening I stood in the late evening sunshine and watched a Pipe Band. I thought about all of the discipline required to make bagpipes sound good. The hours of practice and gradual progression. Six drummers stepped forward and gave a display of timing, teamwork and passion. Their challenge had kept them going until they could work in unison. My writing has challenged my discipline and my passion. I’ve also had to learn to work in unison with my words. We are a team. Describing my life. Exploring my experiences. And giving me space to work out my next step on my spiritual journey.

I have learned to love my writing enough to keep going. That’s important. Because I still have four hundred and one more blogs to write. Plus a book or six. What will your next six challenges be?

Day 600 of my blogging challenge