Thursday, December 01, 2011

Crickets

During this past month of daily blogging, I have spent some time poking around in nearly seven years of my archives and I was reminded that at a certain point in the history of this little blog, I was part of a small circle of bloggers who visited each other regularly, rooted one another on in writing and in life, and in short became, somehow, more than merely faceless strangers at the other end of some cyber connection.

When I click the links on the comments from those old posts, they lead mostly to dead ends--non-existent profiles, blogs that haven't been updated in three or four years, unclaimed domains that are available at a low, low price. Most of my bloggy friends from those early days have been reabsorbed into their "real" lives, leaving barely a trace. This happened so gradually that I barely realized it at the time--absorbed as I was in some of my own "real" life distractions. It felt like I just looked up one day and everyone had snuck out of the room.

I've never seriously considered "closing up shop," but a ridiculous amount of time often passed between posts. As I mentioned in an earlier post this month, NaBloPoMo posts have consistently outnumbered posts from the rest of the year combined.

Worse, I have rarely commented on any of the many, many blogs I have saved in a favorites file--blogs I discovered after the quiet collapse of my first little blogging community, blogs I continue to read with regularity. Commenting on an established blog--especially one with a group of regular commenters feels a little like crashing a party. And, too, the idea that someone might click the profile link on my comment and find her way back to my blog and find a six-month-old half-hearted post didn't make commenting any easier.

All of this is to say that this month's NaBloPoMo and especially the opportunity it's provided to make new bloggy friends has really been a salve on my poor little blogger's soul. I'm looking forward to whatever's next.

5 comments:

  1. I linked a couple of old posts and noticed the commenters on those are long gone. Just like you said, they closed up shop and moved on to another phase of life. I, too, find it hard to let go of my blog space. It's only been two years for me, but the posts and the memories, they are very precious to me. It's easy to get overwhelmed by it life and let it go a bit. NaBloPoMo helped me get back on track too. I am enjoying writing lots of posts again.

    Visiting from the December thread. Great to meet you!

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  2. I feel the same way about posting! I have had lots of spaces between posts on my blog sometimes too, but if you look back at my oldest posts... I have packed those around like so much baggage. It's writing that is straight from my guts... my cyberdiary, if you will.

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  3. NaBloPoMo was so good for me, but I'm not sure I'm up for another month. I'm glad you're posting regularly!!!

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  4. Being a part of an actual blogging community is so new to me it feels...I feel odd somehow. Like I'm crashing a party ;). What's really fun about it is reading all these blogs I've added to my feed and going through comments and seeing people I "know" are also leaving comments and I think, "Wow! This is pretty cool! I know these people!"

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  5. What Jane said. Also, I am completely in awe that you stay as fresh and as wonderful as you do after blogging for 7 years. Truly a talent. I, for one, will be checking back regularly for more. And probably hassling you if I don't get any.

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