Connection...

When I started blogging, there wasn't even a name for it.  This blog is the most recent incarnation and I am six and half years into it.  People used to think that I was crazy for putting myself out there and for sharing my personal thoughts.  I used to get sideways glances when I told people of my "web journal", as if I had some kind of exhibitionism fetish.  Nowadays it is the most common of things to have a blog.  There is a blog for almost every topic under the sun.  Type in the most obscure thing and there is a surely a blog about it.  The platform is conducive to connecting people and perhaps that's why I've done it so long.

While I was talking with my brother, for the first time in over twenty years, one of the things he mentioned was our blogs.  He said that he would check in on us from time to time and that it was one of the things that encouraged him to get back in contact with us.  He read our blogs and felt connected to us.

I felt my throat hitch.

When you write a blog, it's sometimes kind of like shouting into the wind.  You're surrounded by thousands of other voices and you don't know who will hear your message... if at all.  Sometimes it's discouraging to put so much time and effort into a post and only see a handful of responses or none at all.  Sometimes it's discouraging when you DO receive comments, but they are negative and nasty in nature.  Sometimes it's discouraging when people take advantage of your willingness to share and use that information against you.  But still... I've continued to type out my life, even when it seemed like the last thing I wanted to do.  Part of the "secret agenda" of this blog was to reach out, across the miles and many years, and hopefully connect with my brother.  It was my hope that my small voice in the sea of voices would find its mark.  It is good to know that it did.