Tag Archives: Blogging

Seven Years of Blogging

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Dear Wonderful Reader,

Today WordPress notified me that I/we have been blogging for seven years today. Seven years is a significant amount of time (and money) to invest into sharing your thoughts with others, so I’ll take a moment to stop and acknowledge it.

SEVEN YEARS!
Waaaaahhhhhhh!

When Tim and I went overseas with our oldest daughter, we started this blog keep our large social circle in touch with what we were doing on our travels. I never thought I’d still be uploading content all these years later.

I want to take a moment to thank those of you who know me in real life. Thanks you for all your likes, comments, personal messages and shares via FB, in person, email or sms. I’m always surprised by what speaks to people and what any one individual needs to hear on a particularly day. If I have helped you at all during this time, it is my pleasure and not something I take lightly. I am particularly humbled and honoured when you take time to share your own personal stories and/or pains with me.

And now a thank you for my WP friends. When I look at the other bloggers who have been around as long as me, I know that my ‘follow numbers’ don’t reflect my output. I was almost completely ignorant about the rich community here until I got the app on my phone. It makes me laugh. I know that I could have/should have invested more time into promoting my page within the WordPress community, but even to this day, I’m more interested in having genuine connections over numbers. That’s not to say I can’t make genuine online connections, I just haven’t worried about ‘building followers’. To those of you who are following me… I’m sending you lots of blogging love and cheering you on (even if I’m quiet sometimes).

I’m uncertain about how long I will continue doing this… I guess until it no longer brings me joy or I lack the time. For now though, I still plan on writing little pieces whenever I can and I appreciate the time you take to read them.

So, from my heart to yours, thank you again.

Love Jess xxoo

I’m sorry I didn’t notice you: Thank you to my WordPress Community

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This one is for my WordPress Community,

Firstly, I’m sorry I didn’t notice you for so long. I really am sorry. When I started this blog back in July 2013 it was solely to connect with our family and friends whilst overseas. I honestly didn’t pay you much attention, but now almost seven years later, I hold you close to my heart.

Instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds, I can step into other countries and cultures whenever I want. I can access different perspectives, expertise and expressions and it warms my heart. You are helping me grow as I experience life through your eyes.

This morning I had some time on my hands as the kids sat quietly eating breakfast, so using the App Reader I searched through posts about: joy, creativity and photography. I was amazed and inspired by you; all of us working away, investing time (and often money) to share our hearts with others. Some of you had lots of followers and others, just a few, but that really didn’t matter to me. To me, your expressions were not considered as ‘important’ depending on how many followers you had. I felt so grateful in those moments as I poured over words written in South Africa, Portugal, Australia, Brazil, India and England.

So, thank you. From me to you, strangers on the internet, thank you. I know it can be hard sometimes, anyone who has been blogging for more than 6 months knows this, but keep going. Did you know that some mornings the first thing I think about is refreshing my reader feed to see if any of you have created something new while I was sleeping?

Sending you lots of gratitude.

Love Jess xxoo