200 is here!

Happy 200 to me, Happy 200 to me......

When I started this blog, I didn't know anything about blogs. I didn't read blogs. I didn't know anyone with a blog. I didn't really understand why people would write personal things about themselves - private, personal things that should go into a diary - for the world wide web to see.
I'm not a good writer, have never aspired to be a writer, and certainly don't have a spectacular story to tell. But I have always fancied myself on keeping up with technology. I read the Wall Street Journal every day and have often read stories about the use of blogs in marketing and other business related matters. Not one to be totally left behind (and feeling guilty that I'm not really putting my hard-earned degree to work), I thought, "Hey, I'll create a blog and see what happens" with nary a thought to what it should be about, who would read it or what higher (or lower) purpose it would serve (I often go off half-cocked when starting new things. Ask Big Daddy. He'll tell you.)

After my first post, I was hooked! Hooked-in-the-cheek, reeling-me-to-shore kind of hooked! Almost like an addiction, I promise you. I liked that I could log-on and see the words that I had written, bad punctuation and all, right out there on the web. And I could show other people. They could read it from their computers. They could see pictures of my peeps. There would be a testament, actual proof, that we were here. Our story would be preserved and shared.

Then something happened that I never expected.

Someone COMMENTED.

Oh Word! Someone is actually reading this. My family is reading this. My friends are reading this. A stranger is reading this.

Then I saw the real power of the blog - to connect us to others. A connection that is as real as sitting across the table from each other, sipping coffee and catching up on gossip, commenting on world events, and sharing our feelings and fears.

I started reading other blogs. Blogs of strangers. Some of these strangers I now count as friends. Friends whose children and husbands I know. Friends who have the same struggles and challenges. Friends who struggle in different ways than I do, but I want to support them, even though the only way I can do it is through a few words pecked out from my keyboard.

My dear friend Frenchy sent this to me yesterday. It's about 5 minutes long, but totally worth watching. After I saw it, it hit me. THIS is why I blog.


To commemorate my 200th post (and reward you for reading this far), I am giving away a copy of the book The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan.

To enter - and to honor the generations before us who did it all without blogs -
Tell me the name of your mother's best friend.

And for any guys who read this, you can tell me, cause your mom was spectacular too. I'll tell you about mine when I announce the winner tomorrow.