blogging history

Almost 6 years ago, I started this little blog.

Hi there! Glad to have you stumble upon my "blog." Funny how big the decision was to create a "discernment blog," considering that the chances of anyone actually reading it (let alone any one I know) are fairly slim. Nevertheless, it just seemed like the thing to do. I've searched the blogsphere myself, looking for the "What should Susan do with her life website" to no avail. I have, however, been lucky enough to stumble upon the stories of others who have been able to stop and listen to what God might be calling them too. I've benefitted from the struggles, the sharing, the hopes, the fears of complete strangers. And so, I figured it was worth the risk to start documenting my own journey in the hopes that it strikes a chord with someone else.

As the saying goes, what a long strange road it's been! No worries, I'm not stopping the blog. It's just that something happened this week to make me realize how long blogs have been a part of my life.

You see, before I started the blog I spent a lot of time reading other people's blogs. I've probably been a blog consumer for about 7 or 8 years (or my entire 30s!). I quickly discovered that reading blogs takes a lot of time, which I didn't necessarily have. And yet, I also discovered kindred spirits and wise souls who I wanted to keep in touch with virtually.

Enter the wonderful world of RSS aggregators--Bloglines to be specific. Here was a free program that would keep track of all my favorite blogs and let me know when they had something new to say. My blog reading habit was cut from more times a day than I'd like to admit to a quick 5 minute check in each day to see what was new, longer if something caught my eye and I decided to visit a particular blog. I used to check bloglines everyday. Then every few days. Now just once a week or so. I guess I'm not alone, seeing as they're going out of business October 1st.

It was a bit of a shock, realizing that this connection to the blog world was going away. I transferred to another blog reader which required me to take time to check out all of the blogs I subscribed to to see if they were still active. Many have moved on to other things. Some are still blogging along. I thought about people I haven't though about it along time, most of them people I've never met in person but who have been a part of my own discernment journey. I'm grateful to them all and to the wonderful world of blogs.