Blogging for the sake of blogging

Why I Blog: For the Photos.
I love my family's photos. I love that they are patient, sitting and waiting on the hard-drive until I come by to browse and discover them. I just saw the ones below for the first time while going through archived photos last night and adore every little slice of life recorded in them, from back in March of this year. I didn't photograph them, Monkeyrotica or Rosie did, so I'm really seeing them fresh. I'm not even sure where we were or what we were doing back in March. It doesn't matter. They're mine and they're full of love.

Why I Blog: For Friends and Future Me.
The reason I started blogging in the first place was because of changes that were happening so fast in my life. I was pregnant and internalizing, not communicating well with family and friends about changes. This venue was perfect to get a dialog going with important people in my life, near and far. Years later, I am amazed and grateful to the former me, who thought to document my hopes, thoughts, dreams, good and bad. Looking back and re-reading posts from when my kids were infants, re-experiencing the joy of first steps, or reliving the horror of a missing child, makes me more whole, more me. These things are so easy to forget in a busy life. My kids are just-shy-of-nine years old and six-and-a-half now, and full of personality. Now that they've been a part of my life for so long, their every moves and things they say are no longer quirky novelties. They are known to me, adored and sweet.

Why I Blog: For People I'll Find along the Way. 

The community I found while blogging was also an added bonus to the writing. I found friends that I've now known for years who live in Oregon, Alabama, Canada, Ohio, whom I've never met. I read their blogs, they read mine; for a while, anyway. A couple of years ago, everyone moved over to Facebook or Google Reader and we commented over there. But now, since Facebook sucks and Reader is gone (SOB! so sad, I hate the people who took it away :-(!!!), we need to come back to the blog as a community. Let's move our conversation back over here.

Why I Blog: I Need Challenges.

I'm looking forward to NaBloPoMo 2001! I just fell out of the blogging habit when there were so many other social venue options. Twitter/Facebook/Google+/Diaspora/Reader/Buzz? Where to connect? Who is there? How can I get in touch with my favorite people best? Bob knows I can't do them all. It's mind-boggling and my head hurts just thinking about thinking about it. Bring on the blog!

So, I'm committed, for a month. I've got my make-up on, let's do this!