Friday, February 25, 2011

Mag 54 - Writerquake turns three

























This blog is three-years-old today, and Tess' remarkable photo prompt this week at Magpie Tales seemed a perfectly fitting image to use in celebration of the occasion!

Looking back three years ago, this is what I wrote for my first post:

Jumping in

I made this blog yesterday with the title "It's about time" not because I intend to write about time, although I will from time to time write about time, but because I simply haven't been writing and it's about time I did. My intention now is to use this as a journal space to blast out some words. Right now I don't plan on telling anyone I know, including my husband, Mike, that I am writing a blog. Sending my thoughts out into word space is my last idea, really, to free myself to write. I hope it works. I hope that what comes from this is my own writerquake in the 4.0 and above range.

And that will take time . . .


My life has changed in many ways as a result of beginning this blog. The most wondrous are the friends I have met, people whom I now treasure...some as kindreds. In fact, my mother-son relationship with Dex who lives in the Philippines developed via our blogs in that first year, and a twist of fate gave us a chance to meet and spend a week together in 2010.

Structural changes happened swiftly. In about a week's time I changed the blog header to read
Writerquake: it's about time. I dropped the bit about Time altogether in the latter part of the first month, which was also when I showed the blog to my husband. After naming the blog simply Writerquake things began to feel like home here, and actually it is when I began to feel at home in my own skin for more than episodic visitations.

When my blog became a home base for me and I realized that some people actually liked visiting me here, that they left comments that invited and enticed me over to their blogs, I spiffed up the place. In the course of three years I have had five different blog headers and three different templates. My blogroll has changed and grown as I have been super-charged with excitement and awe over the astonishing creativity that abounds in the blogosphere. Truth be told, my blogroll would be as long as a highway if I added every one of you who has dazzled and inspired me at least once. Instead, I passionately "follow" those blogs and have given myself license for that list to stretch to the stars.

Speaking of stars, that is what my own followers are to me. I love you. You honor me by becoming a "Writerquaker" and I honestly think about you when I am working on my posts.

With 768 posts in three years I definitely can attest that blogging has been a catalyst for writing for me. Writerquake was even a catalyst for my second blog, Clutterquake -- begun five months later -- with an entirely different scope and mission.

Not all of those 768 posts entailed creative, personal writing - certainly not - but most were a sharing of my feelings, emotions, opinions, and passions in ways I would not have expressed without my blog. Somewhere in year two I joined the community of poets who are inspired weekly at The Poetry Bus. I have not written a poem each week and I have not been pleased with every poem I have written (I have truly liked a few), but prior to hopping on board the Bus I had written exactly one poem in 14 years.

Then, later on in year two, I became curious to find out about this Magpie Tales blog that I kept seeing mentioned in marvelous posts created as a result of Magpie photo prompts. The photos were spectacular, and individual representations of the weekly images were uniquely varied and ultimately sublime. The magpies I have written since joining this community have not been easy for me. There are weeks when I am truly stumped, when nothing comes. But there have been a few occasions when my muse loves the week's image in equal proportion to my love for the image and I ride a rhythm of words that tumble and flow, and after a bracing little writerquake I am, for a time, content.




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22 comments:

Jinksy said...

And that is exactly the joy of Blogland! A place to explore, and one where we can be the person we've always wanted to be, instead of the one others expect us to be. Here's to your next three years, eh? :)

La Belette Rouge said...

Happy Blogaversary. I am so glad that I found your blog. I am thrilled that lead to me meeting you in person. To my right, on a table, is the beautiful music box you gave me. I think of you everyday when I see it. I think of that lovely day when I got to meet you and I smile. Thank you for all the fun, beauty, writing and joy you give us via your blog. Please, keep blogging.xoxo

Anonymous said...

Delighted to have met you through blogging ... wishing you many more blogversaries!

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

happy three years and many more to come

Just be aware that your blog means a lot to us readers - i always look at OPW even if i don't always comment

Kathe W. said...

Happy 3rd Year! Lovely and true words you wrote about the world of blogging and all the wonderous personalities we meet....I've been blogging since 2006, but didn't know the power that was there until I began just a few months ago to participate on Magpie Tales. It's a wonderful world out here! and you are part of it!

mythopolis said...

Well, I am an avid fan, and so glad you decided to blog. It is a very nice exploratory medium, and I enjoy the expressions of bloggers from so many different walks of life. So, congratulations on your stead-fast blogging, and I hope you will continue in giving us such interesting things to ponder.

pohanginapete said...

Happy anniversary. Glad you stuck with it, and trusting you'll keep going so we can continue to delight in what you show us.
:^)

manuela said...

happy blog-anniversary!! you express beautifully all the wonders that come with blogging, and the most wonderful being the friends. it's been such a pleasure to share in your journey, and i'm looking forward to the road ahead, too!

Phivos Nicolaides said...

Exploring, searching and have an adventure or a a journey... Have a wonderful weekend my dearest friend.

Looking to the Stars said...

Happy 3rd Blog-anniversary!!! It is because of you that I am here in Blogland and I am forever thankful for you!

You have inspired me, opened my eyes and shared your knowledge. Thank you for being a part of my journey & life :)

Hattie said...

Happy Anniversary! Blogging is such a great medium to try things out, meet new people, express appreciation for things we love.
Keep up the good work.

Owen said...

Happy Blog Birthday Lydia !!!

Here's to the next three years...

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

3 years is a HUGE accomplishment!!!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Kristen Haskell said...

I feel the very same way about the people that comment on my blog posts. It is such a supportive community of people that we would have no access to otherwise. I love reading your blog and so many others. I decided that I am going to take the whole week to read all the Magpies posted. I find such treasures that way.

bfk said...

Happy Anniversary Lydia,
It's nice to get a little background about it.

Many, many more.

Lydia said...

Kristen~ Thank you for sharing your (mutual) thoughts. Wow, I am impressed that you intend to read every magpie this week. I have made it as far as every-other-one...

bfk~ Thank you, bfk, for your interest and kind wishes.

susan said...

Belated happy third anniversary. I'm sorry I missed the first couple of years but very glad to have become a friend and visitor since we met last summer.

All the best for many more years of creativity. Your work is excellent.

Lydia said...

susan~ Oh, I so appreciate your words of encouragement and I also am so glad that we have become friends. It was a fortunate meeting, given that you moved so far so soon afterward...

Tess Kincaid said...

Happy Blogoversary! It's been a joy to connect. Am I too late for cake? Cut me a big ol' slab!

Roxana said...

belated 'happy writerquake-anniversary', dear Lydia! the perfect post to celebrate it, i think all of us who blog out there have asked themselves some of the questions you talk about here and experienced similar things. and i am so happy to be able to accompany you on this journey and be a part of your wonderful (and thought-provoking) world...

Lydia said...

Tess~ I saved you a big piece of quake-cake! It is the one with the magpie made of the darkest chocolate on the earth. :)

Roxana~ That you accompany me on this journey is one of the brightest moonbeams. I so appreciate your good wishes and most of all your dazzling photography that gives us a glimpse into your world and spirit.

Kim said...

Happy Belated Blogoversary!!! Three years is HUGE!

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