Party Time!

by Elouise

Sesame Street 2nd BDay Cupcakes

Calling all Muffin, Cupcake and Kookie Monsters! Dance ’til you Drop!

I love blogging! Why? Because I’m having fun, doing what my heart tells me to do, at least most of the time.

Three things stand out when I think about this past year.

#1. You!
What’s so great about you? I’m not sure yet. I just know that because you’re there I can relax. I’m not writing for strangers. I’m writing for friends, and don’t feel nearly as self-conscious as I did when I began this blog. I have you to thank for this—especially your encouragement, and the wisdom and experiences you’ve shared in your comments.

#2. I’m not running a race or a marathon.
I don’t have to keep up with an arbitrary pace or with any other bloggers. I won’t lose my audience if I slow down a bit from time to time. When I look back at my earlier posts, I see and hear the difference between then and now. What a relief!

#3. I live when I write.
I never would have said that when I started out. Yet it’s how I’m wired. If I don’t write anything for one full day, I don’t feel quite alive. Or real. Not in relation to you, but in relation to myself. Every day my mind drifts down many paths. Writing pulls threads together into a somewhat coherent pattern. I love discovering and making patterns clear so I recognize myself in all the verbiage!

Now with a little fanfare and rolling of drums….
December 27 marks the 2nd anniversary of Telling the Truth!

Here’s a bit of data as of today, December 22:

Since my first post on 27 December 2013

  • I’ve published 625 posts in the last two years.
  • More than 10,900 visitors have viewed Telling the Truth on the blog site itself.
  • Total views on the blog site are close to 40,000.

Since 1 January 2015

  • I’ve published 437 posts.
  • More than 6,000 visitors have stopped by the blog site.
  • On-site views in 2015 total close to 23,000.
  • Views per blog site visitor average 3.82.
  • Most visitors came from the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Canada, Cameroon and Ethiopia. Add to this at least 85 other countries.

Telling the Truth seems to have plenty of life in it. Your life, not just mine. How long can I continue doing this? Here are my personal criteria for continuing into 2016.

  • I still love blogging.
  • My fingers, eyes, mind and body are functioning at relatively normal levels.
  • I haven’t run out of things to say.
  • You haven’t run out of time to visit!

My huge thanks to each and every one of you. Some have followed Telling the Truth since it began. Others just arrived this week. To all of you I want to say this:

You’ve given me courage,
heavy doses of encouragement,
pieces of your life and much to think about.
You’ve made me laugh, cry, ponder
and even weep.
Sometimes you’ve prompted me, without asking,
to send up a small prayer for encouragement and strength
to deal with whatever has come unbidden
into your lives.

What more could I ask for in a blog? Perhaps more  transparency (from me), perhaps more poetry (from me), perhaps more attention to current events (from me)? I’m thinking all this through for the second part of this look back and forward–to be posted after Christmas.

If you have any wishes, let them be known pronto! Or whenever you get around to it….
Elouise ♥

© Elouise Renich Fraser, 22 December 2015
Fabulous Sesame Street Party Table found at flickr.com