It’s Thursday and I’m Crafting my Life! March’s theme is blogging. This week, I’m talking about blogging your dreams, and why that can be a really great thing.
My husband Jon started this blog in May, 2003, which means that it’s pretty old as far as blogs go. I have posted regularly here for over 6 1/2 years, now, but it took me a long time to figure blogging out. In fact, I didn’t like the idea of a blog when Jon first set it up. I made him create a landing page that had links, including one to ‘Amber’s Thoughts’ or something like that. I declared he should not use the word blog, because what was a blog anyway, and why would I want one?
For years, I kept up this blog and visited others, but rarely commented. I have some social anxiety, and I was convinced that somehow I would say the wrong thing in someone’s comment section and suffer abject humiliation. I was also afraid that people would follow me back to my own blog, not like what they saw, and more abject humiliation would result. When I decided to start extending myself more, I would leave a comment for someone and then go hide in my bedroom. Because, you know, if I stayed in front of my computer they could see me or something.
Once I got over my fears and started reaching out beyond my own thoughts I discovered something amazing – a fabulously supportive online community. The truth is that there are countless blogs out there. If someone doesn’t like mine, or yours (although who wouldn’t, we’re both lovely), they will just move on. Similarly, if I come across a blog that doesn’t really speak to me, I will just move on, too. But a lot of the time, when I find someone that I think is great they think I’m not too bad, myself. In our words we recognize commonality, and it is really a fabulous gift.
The true value of this gift came to me full force when I lost my job almost a year ago. I went into a bit of a tailspin, trying to figure out what to do next. Getting laid off forces some soul-searching, because you can’t really just continue in the well-laid and secure path you have set out for yourself. You need to, at minimum, look for another well-laid and secure path. Or, some of us decide to scrap our well-laid and secure paths, and embark on a journey to craft our lives into something new.
Anyways, when my life was all up in the air and I felt discouraged and unsure, I had this space. I shared a lot of my fears and dreams with you. It was scary, I’ll admit it. Putting yourself out there like that can leave you feeling pretty vulnerable. The last thing in the world that you want to hear is that someone thinks your dreams are silly or that your fears are justified and you probably do suck. But I didn’t hear that. I heard lots and lots of positive feedback, and encouragement, and support. I heard that I was not alone, and that other people had the same thoughts and fears. I even heard that some people had fulfilled their own dreams.
Not everyone feels as comfortable as I do sharing their thoughts with the internet at large. And not everyone has to – blogging is hardly a pre-requisite to a life well-lived. But I personally wish that I had figured out how the blogging community works much sooner than I did. My life is much the richer for it.
How about you? Has blogging about your dreams helped you? Have you found a supportive community online? Please share!
March’s Crafting my Life series is about the whys and hows of blogging, and what blogging means to pursuing your dreams. On the last Thursday of the month, which just happens to be the 25th, I will include a link up. To participate, write a post on this month’s theme anytime in March, or track down a post you’ve written on the subject sometime in the past, and add yourself to the list. Then read everyone else’s ideas and thoughts and be inspired! Check out the link-ups from January and February to get a feel for how it works.
Glad to hear that blogging has helped you follow your own track and dreams.
Your blog has become a long term exercise or investment. And a community followed. Bravo!!
I can’t remember if I ever dared blogging about my dreams. My blog was born in a difficult time, I needed to decide if I could go on with my crazy life (2 children, full time job, living in a city far from my family).
Maybe I shoul try blogging about my dreams!! thanks for reminding me of that!
I started blogging almost 2 years ago when I found out I was pregnant. It was a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings of being pregnant, but somewhere halfway through my pregnancy I lost my oompf with blogging. It was only recently that I picked it back up and I do feel my focus is different than where I was 2 years ago.
My original blog is still out there in cyber space though. It’s like that little journal that I stuck in the back of my drawer and will look at it from time to time.
.-= Sara´s last post ..Homemaker Notebook =-.
I don’t think I can adequately describe how sorry I am that I didn’t start blogging earlier, that I let my stupid insecurities and inadequacies and other words that begin with in hold me back. I did some journalling about the kids’ early years, but I would love to have the blog record, and I think it would have helped immeasurably when times got very dark and heavy. In a way, blogging has already fulfilled one of my dreams — to write without hiding, to find people like me, to do a little bit more with my life. At times that was more than I could hope for. yeah, this seems a little cheesy to me, but I’m not erasing it. So there. Now I’m going to check out that fast abs thing right above me — maybe I can live another dream
.-= allison´s last post ..****************Wordless Wednesdays: Charmed, I’m Sure =-.
i stumbled into blogging as a by-product of my crafting, trying it as a marketing idea (with a little success).
now i run two blogs (one of them transformed into the marketing side of things) where i can share my work and thoughts with the world …. and i am amazed that people read and follow.
recently i’ve been ‘thinking out loud’ re: where do i go as a stay-at-home mum, what next for this mid-forties woman, and it has been illuminating getting my thoughts/dreams (nightmares) down on “paper” as i try to make sense of my mid-life crisis. the bonus has been the encouragement and sympathy in the comments (thank you Amber!) as i gain strength to stride into my fifties rather than wander willy nilly.
blogging is a great support to me
Amber, I’m so surprised that you were so reluctant to come to blogging. You are such a natural at it. Your blog as been a very important part of the community I’ve found on-line, and I visit every day for your thoughtful posts.
Writing my own blog has been so important to be over the past four years as I quit my job, moved half-way across the world, and experienced long bouts of unemployment. There have been quite a few ups and downs on that journey, but I’m glad that all of them are recorded on my blog. I only wish I had more time these days to keep up the writing, but work and new parenthood have really taken it out of me. I miss it, though. Thanks for reminding me why what may seem a “silly hobby” is actually so important.
Totally.
I just started blogging and so wish I began 10 years ago.
I’m someone with basically zilch social anxiety mind you. But it’s the community I love.
Last night I dreamed my teeth were rotten.
But it turns out they are in fine form.
.-= Betsy´s last post ..So cute it’s basically assault… =-.
Let’s see. My current dreams are to see my children grow up safe, healthy, and happy and to find people who will love them. I also dream for my husband to dream, to find his dream.
My immediate dream for myself is to be there for my family’s big moments (and small ones too), and to be able to photograph it all. I want to be a photographer. I also want to stay connected to others in the arts (both writing and visual arts).
Those are my dreams.
I’m excited to participate later this month. I already have a post in mind.
BRAVO!
I was a late blogger by my friend’s accounts. They had been trying to get me to do it for years, but I resisted for pretty much the exact reasons you did. It did not help my fears when my husband did not trust this medium… in fact he still looks on it with serious doubts all this time later.
It has been incredibly therapeutic for my soul to find like-goaled people out there. Otherwise I am sure I would have given up on working at home years ago in a desperate search for social interaction that was apart from home.
Your blog in particular has been great! You are different enough for me to aspire to be more than I am, and yet similar enough that I feel a real community can exist over the internent. Kids, career, husband, dreams and challenges are all important subjects to share (as women in particular). By this forum we are the village raising our kids – how cool is that!
.-= *pol´s last post ..THANK YOU!!!! =-.
Blogging has given me a new career! I was in fashion pre-kids and couldn’t do that and be the mom I wanted to be. It’s been such a god send for me workwise, and then in the past year the bonus has been connecting with the blogging community. For the first two years of blogging I was pretty solitary–now I am getting out there and love it.
Hi Amber,
I’ve started a blog a once and then stopped. I didn’t have anything interesting to write about pre-kids! I became a part of an online mommies group before I got pregnant with my first born, seven years ago, and we would post to a private website. These entries were very much like blog entries as we talked about parenting and bragged about our great kids, gave eachother parenting advice etc. I’ve recently started a blog that was inspired by your writing Amber. I realized that as a mom in her mid-thirties I had a lot of thoughts I wanted to share on parenting and it’s kind of become my personal journal of thoughts, which I love about blogging and reading blogs. I haven’t blogged my dreams yet but I do have a ‘bucket list’ of dreams that requires some of my focus, perhaps I’ll blog about that tonight
.-= Tanya´s last post ..Expectations of a new mom =-.
I started blogging almost a year ago. I wish I had started sooner. I was always a bit dismissive of it because, well, it seemed a bit self-indulgent to talk about your self all the time. What I have learnt is that it can be a bit self-indulgent, but so what. Maybe that is a good thing.
I have met some awesome people blogging. Some of those have become real life friends and I am so thankful for that.
I love your blog. I am glad you are blogging.
I actually signed up for a blog on my first mat leave and then felt that everything I wrote was stupid and boring and took it down.
While on my second mat leave I decided to start one up again on a lark with some vague thoughts of striking it instantly as a “Big Blogger” and making so much money my husband could quit his job and we could live in a big blog-paid house a la Dooce. Of course that hasn’t actually happened and I abandoned that pipe dream fairly quickly.
Although blogging hasn’t bought me a house, or even an apple, it has connected me to a group of really interesting people. Even better for this introvert who lost her entire social network when I decided to quit my job, I’ve managed to meet a few in real life.
.-= Marilyn @ A Lot of Loves´s last post ..Worms and Dirt: Wednesday of Few Words =-.
Funny you post this when I was ranting about little blogs on mine!
Yeah…I love blogging for the community it has given me.
social anxiety and so on has made it hard for me to connect especially with moms..so the internet has been a BLESSING for me.
A real gift and I am so happy and wish I had started sooner!
.-= Crunchy´s last post ..Little Blogs grow into Big Blogs =-.
You always sound so self confident … I hope I’ve never written anything thing that didn’t sound positive feedback! 6 1/2 yrs ago I didn’t even know what a blog was. I discovered the blogging world only about a year and half ago, when we (finally) got a fast(er) internet connection. I love blogging, and I always look forward to the time in the day when I can sit down at my computer!
.-= Francesca´s last post ..New olive discoveries =-.
This post made me laugh out loud several times.
(Needed that!)
I think I originally started a blog to post pictures of the jewelry I made so that I could keep pictures and thoughts all in one place. Then the reality of having a tiny baby that never slept for more than 1-2 hours hit..and I let it go. When I started up a again, I was surprised at what came out – and by the wonderful people that showed up. Now it is all about dreams.
I was very happy to see your theme this month because I meant to talk specifically about blogging last month for the time management post but my post went it’s own direction.
I’m glad you blog too Amber and I’m glad you get something so positive out of it.
I’ve been blogging off and on in various guises for 5 years (pregnancy blog, news/marketing blog for birth supply business and now?). I’m feeling the most positive about it right now but that’s saying a lot. I think I still need to sort out what the point is.
.-= BluebirdMama aka @childbearing´s last post ..Maybe Montessori =-.
Your posts are always great Amber and like others said, I love reading them every day.
Many of your posts make me go “hmmmmmm….. how would I handle that? What do I think about that?”
The more you share the more I realize we have quite a bit in common (besides the same name for our daughters
). I love reading about your thought process, about how you’re crafting your life, what it’s like to live through your children’s eyes…. it’s very similar to what I’m going through or will go through in the next few years.
I only started my personal blog a few months ago and I have been so suprised by the support I’ve gotten. It was a difficult transistion for me to become a stay at home mom – I felt really lonely and blogging has helped me connect with others in the same situation.
I have the same hestiations – about talking about my dreams wondering if people will laugh at me or think I’m crazy. Hopefully it’s just a blogging newbie feeling.
See you around online
.-= Cheryl´s last post ..March 5: Fashionable or Frumpy? =-.
Blogging was/is an important community and artistic impression after my son was born and it became much harder to indulge in my primary art form – dance. I can’t get a dance studio and team of performers in the middle of the night whenever I want, but I can certainly read and write then!
.-= Lady M´s last post ..Five Years =-.
What a wonderful post, Amber. I think this is my first time visiting here. And you DO INDEED have a lovely blog. It seems like a peaceful place
I wasn’t quite sure about the whole blogging thing at first — I actually thought having a recipe blog might help me get my recipes in better order. But I’ve found I just keep finding more and more great recipes from other people’s blogs, so now I have more in my “to try” pile than ever 
Oh well. I agree with you, it seems to be such a supportive community online, and it is really fun to come across people with similar interests, people you’d never get to meet in real life.