With Gratitude

I recently decided to share my blog with some very select friends and a few family members because, quite frankly, I got tired of writing on a public forum to just myself. I figured if I wanted to continue to write solely to myself I could just go out and buy another diary. Right?

I think that the point of having a blog is to be able to expose yourself to others both known and unknown, and to hope that you find a common ground with those people. That being said - almost every person that I know only shares a part of themselves with others. As Billy Joel is apt to say, "We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone". By me creating this blog - I am showing that hidden face to the world.  Even more scary to me is that I am showing that face to people who think they know me, but really, only know a part of me.

There are  some things that I worry about with this blog. I worry that someone else in my community might take offense to what I have to say. Or, even worse, I worry that someone will show pieces of my blog to their children who will in turn tease my kids about a blog whose content they have no clue about. I worry that my family will freak out and have negative things to say about me potentially adding to my family.

But then, as it always does when my heart and soul align, my brain stops worrying (if only for a second) about all of those things. I am writing this blog for me and for that one person who is able to identify with something I have to say. I have taken away so much from the blogs that I follow. I hope that I am able to pay it forward, and provide some sort of hope or confirmation that the choices a reader has made - I have made too. Often times, we feel so alone. That feeling is so unnecessary because there are so many of us struggling with the same issues.

I have much gratitude in my heart for my husband who supports this blog even though there are things he probably wishes I wouldn't share with the world. I have gratitude in my heart for the friend who immediately sent me a text of support in regards to my blog after I sent out the initial Facebook message letting people know it exists. I have gratitude in my heart for the friend who I visited today who told me that she learned a lot about me through my blog. I have gratitude in my heart for the family member who sent me such an encouraging email yesterday.