Blogging

I’m saying good-bye to blogging, at least for a while. I’ve been very lax about blogging and don’t really feel as if I have much to say lately. I’m keeping busy with so many other things, and I feel it is time to let this blog go.

It’s been a two-year journey–blogging and taking a sabbatical from paid work. Now, I am getting ready to return to the work world via temping, and I am very active in some other on-line communities, so it feels as if the blog has served its purpose. I truly appreciate my loyal readers, and I’ll continue to check in on your blogs via Bloglines.

If you’d like to stay connected, here are various ways:

My Flickr

On Ravelry as Jennhx

On Good Reads as Jennhx

And I’m signed up for the rest of the “100 lists of 100 things” swaps at Swap-bot, in addition to maintaining the related blog.

I think that is more than enough on-line presence for one gal. This blog will be going away, but I plan to use Jennhx.com as a site for my photography and editing services, as I slowly develop those.

Thanks and see you ’round!

Little piggy heads back into the barn after a hard day’s work.

Heather included me in her Make My Day list! I’m honored!

The premise is: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

So, in no particular order, here’s who Makes My Day lately:

The Noticing Project : photo per day by two photographers… lovely pristine images which somehow, each day, complement each other very nicely!

Shutter Sisters : a new discovery of mine, this is a fab group of women and their cameras.

AfricanKelli : I’ve been reading Kelli’s writing for at least a year, which makes it a long-time love. She is super-crafty (I aspire to sew one day like her), a fantastic writer, culturally sensitive and politically active. Oh, did I mention I like her writing?

Happy Things : I think I’ve mentioned her before. Great at noticing the ephemereal things. Reminds me to do so.

the scent of water makes everything look so beautiful.

Pie Knits has been an inspiration to me since I got into the blog world.  Very cute, hip, and well-thought out patterns.  And with a pie as her logo, how could I resist?

Mary Jane : with a Climbing Mount Cassoulet Cook Off!  Wow!

If you are reading this, and feel like participating, make my day.  I nominate you too!

Pink Purl has a great post about the connections made when blogging, and she also considers why she blogs. (I found it via Simmy’s luscious blog.)

I’ve been thinking about why I blog ever since I missed commemorating my one-year-blogiversary a couple months ago. I started blogging 14 months ago, and a few times I’ve wondered if I’ll continue, but at this point my blog process is pretty simple to manage. I’ve got the tech stuff all set up, so I just need to write, click to add some pictures, and my post uploads almost on its own. When I feel like learning something new, there are always tech things I could add when I’m ready.

Other than blogging being easy because it’s set up already, I find creativity essential to my life. And so I blog.

Blogging has taught me that I’m less of a writer than I thought I was. I still enjoy writing some, but my love of visual arts, especially photography, as blossomed in the past year. And so I actually rely on Flickr more than blogs these days. Maybe I have more in common with the photographers there than with creative arts bloggers…? Could be……

Like Pink Purl, I too enjoy the connections that blogging has formed. AND they are a pleasurable and unexpected by-product of the creative act of blogging. I am unable to blog simply because I want comments or responses. My inspiration for blogging comes in fits and starts; I let it flow when it’s ready; and isn’t primarily about the connection.

As for my commenting on other blogs… I can rarely keep up reading the “mere” 35 blogs on my bloglines!! Some folks blog every single day, and I’m finding I cannot make that sort of commitment no matter how much I love reading their posts when I get the chance. Fellow blogger, you may feel resentful about that — how can I expect readers when I don’t read very regularly– but again, I don’t have many expectations about readership, and I think it’s more a matter of priorities. Lately I’m trying so hard to more thoughtfully and lovingly create/cultivate my “live” relationships, my personal growth/mental health, a spiritual life, and a potential new career instead. Often blog reading can take away from my live relationships or my own creative time.

(I’d feel remiss here if I didn’t point out that internet addiction is a growing problem. Click here or here to take a brief quiz about your internet use.)

I can only take in so much new information. (See my recent post about information overload.) Mostly I read blogs for inspiration to create, or for reminders about how to appreciate the little things in life. There are several blogs especially good at those kinds of inspiration; right now my favorites are Mary Jane, Simmy’s Echoes of a Dream, and HappyThings. I love being inspired to create my own beautiful little world! It’s joyful, even if only a few people choose to come inside and visit.

Thanks to Lolly for the meme:

This was a nice meme to get me thinking, and a good one for someone, like me, in a career and life exploration phase.

My proudest moment dates back to taking a summer intensive (201-203 levels) Russian class in 1995 — over ten years ago! Since then… graduation from college seemed like a given the next year, and then I’ve been working at jobs that didn’t suit me. So I kind of got lost. This makes me think I ought to set some goals for myself. Duh. What should it be? Rock climbing to get over my fear of heights? Or something career related? I am proud of myself for getting more into a self-care routine, as I wrote a couple days ago, but this is something I’m still working on and it accumulates gradually.

I think Lolly expressed precisely what I feel about my wildest dreams: “I have a hard time articulating my wildest dreams. I want to live life to the fullest, and I am still trying to figure out exactly what that means.” I know that, for me, it needs to include a large dose of creativity, art, and enough money to be really comfortable. It makes me squirm to include money, but I’m finally admitting that financial security does matter to me, although I have to be careful how much of myself I give away to get it.

Lately I’ve been understanding how important time spent in the natural world is to me. I want more of it! It truly rests my soul, inspires me, and takes me out of my anxious mind. Nature’s beauty - in all its forms, even the rainy grey forms - can help me live more consciously in the moment, accepting what comes. This is a true practice in the Buddhist meaning of the word.

I’m in North Carolina visiting my paternal grandmother, aunt and cousin.  It’s been an interesting trip so far, very mellow and yet with all the attendant family disappointments appearing.  Ah, families…

I have been regaled by my Polish Babcia (grandma)’s stories of wartime in Poland and Germany, how she was shot while traveling on a train with other college-aged young women, and later how she was picked up on the street by German soldiers and sent to Germany to work there, taking the place of one of the millions of Germans who were at the front.  And later, how she immigrated to the U.S. with her husband, two children, and a couple of suitcases.  It’s putting it lightly to say this is one lady who has lived through it all.  She says “Polish ladies are strong.”

I return to Seattle on Tuesday evening, but I think I’ve got a couple almost-complete posts I could wrap up and submit in the meantime for anyone waiting with baited breath (any of you three regular readers worried?)!

Meanwhile in blogland, the wonderful Flickr plugin seems to have broken so the My Photos link in the top right doesn’t work right now.  There is a fix already, but since I’m not at home I haven’t been able to implement it.