Seven Years; the Evolution of a Blog

Seven Years; the Evolution of a Blog

LFI is Seven Years Old! 

It’s hard to believe that seven years have passed since I published this first post.  In it, I said that life is a “grand adventure.” Little, as they say, did I know.

Starting a blog marked a turning point in my life as it was the beginning of developing my writing voice. I was also, at the time, working on my first book, The Happy Place.

The conversations about life on the LFI porch were fun and lighthearted in the early days as we were getting to know one another. Gradually, I introduced topics that led us deeper into the paradox, where we could agree to disagree because we could find no one answer to the questions. Then in 2012, when my son died, the theoretical became real and the conversations more serious, searching. I will be forever grateful to the people at LFI who came to the porch to support me as I tried to deal with my grief.

It was because of the fascinating conversations we were having at LFI that I decided to try out the Google+ Hangouts when they were introduced. It was the people gathering there every second week that made me aware of my love of community. Funny how sometimes you don’t hear your own words until they are echoed back to you. When I do a LFI Search for “community” today I see over 85 different posts! Whaaat??? The happenings at the hangouts inspired the writing of my second book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age.

You will notice that there are no longer 100+ comments at LFI: So many blogging friends have had to abandon their blogs as life made more demands on their time. This is happening to me too, as, for at least a time, I’ve reduced my posting to about once a month while trade my autodidactic learning for formal education as I work on my Master’s program.

 

Seven Things I’ve Learned in the Past 7 Years

  1. I’ve learned to trust my intuition, to trust myself. I’ve taken to heart a mantra that came to me many years ago, “I am cherished, supported, guided and protected by Life.” It’s become my reality and I like that.
  2. For most of my life I’ve felt as if I were going against the current, fighting for purchase, but now I see that, even then, Life had been supporting me.
  3. I’ve learned that you develop some pretty strong muscles when you swim against the current.
  4. I’ve learned to trust this line I love so well in the poem Desiderata, “…no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should,”  because, as I’ve noticed so many times along the way, everything that happens is designed to bring you to the place where you need to be.
  5. I’ve learned that it’s all part of it, everything that happens, even if it doesn’t work out in exactly the way you’d imagined. It’s all part of living a full life and discovering what it was you came here to do.
  6. I learned that my writing, like my community, is my lifeboat during turbulent times.
  7. I’ve learned that no matter what happens to you, you survive. Sometimes it’s all you can do to make it to the end of the day, but that’s enough for any one day. Life goes on, and the rough times give way to the easier ones.

Life really is a grand adventure, isn’t it?

What do you think?

Photo Credit: LimeSpiked

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About The Author


I have always loved writing and community building. I’ve written a book about healing and happiness, The Happy Place, as well as a Community Building book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age,both available at any Amazon store. I’ve been through life changes that I thought were the end of my world, but I’m still here. You never know what will happen next. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?