A year of blogging

Three hundred and sixty-four (and a quarter) days ago I started this blog. I did it for personal reasons - a way to express myself and a place to share the things that I thought were cool in this world. Since then I have learned about a lot of things, found new sources of information for my interests, and even picked up a couple of followers. The blog has seen over 3600 hits (an average of about 10 a day) and this will be my seventy-fourth post.

I have enjoyed the last year and am looking forward to future blogging. I've learned that having a public blog encourages me to write. Whether it's to express the things that I find magical about this world or the experiences that I have because I have made a public statement that desirous readers can find a new post on Thursdays (or Mondays) I feel obligated to produce it. This is different from when I've kept a journal written by hand. While I do not have the privacy that a bound journal gives me, I find that the blog provides me with a similar forum to express myself.

In thinking about my bound journals with the evolution of my handwriting evident between the pages, some may feel that a blog is not the same. Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, pointed out in a lecture on time management that many also disparage over the lack of letter writing in today's society. He countered that E-mail is still communication and is recorded and searchable, something that handwritten letters are not. I feel the same way about a blog. I don't mean to say that blogging or E-mail is better than keeping a handwritten journal or posting a letter but simply that the activity of recording our lives happens in many ways. Blogs and E-mail are not the same as their handwritten counterparts and that is okay. My only hope is that both mediums fulfill the purpose that I use them for - self-reflection, insight, meditation, and a record of myself for others.

However they happen, the mental processes that go into blogging and keeping a journal (those mentioned above) are healthy for people to engage in. Our brains are complex and never turn off voluntarily. Ever moment of every day and night it is doing something. introspection, self-reflection, meditation, and other such activities are useful as we sort through the stuff that our brain has collected and begin to make sense of it all. It allows us to see how we fit in with and interact with the world. I used to think that meditation was the processes of thinking of nothing, but I don't see it that way anymore. For me, meditation is a chance to focus my thoughts and identify what is important in life. There are enough things vying for our attention that we often need to simply slow down and focus on one thing at a time.

Here's to the first year of delving into a mixed mind. I'm curious what the next one will bring.