What blogging means to me?

Seriously, I want to blag some free stuff!   Isn't that why we're all here?!   Remember Harry Enfield's character from the Eighties, Loadsamoney!

No, honestly, what blogging means to me is a return to self.   A return to what I once loved, and a vibrant community, now somewhat dispersed, that was supportive and caring.

A return to an old voice, that once resonated for me.   That's what blogging is, or what I hope it will be.

The old me has wandered in the wilderness, outside of the Bloggy Kingdom, for some time.  Not dissimilar, then, from Game of Thrones!   Though even White Walkers and dragons are a bit scant in the stark hills of Northumberland.

The old me has gone back again to full time work, after having been unemployed, and distraught for a bit, over a number of tumultuous months, when bright pennies jangled against and squabbled with one another, lonely in my pockets. 

If I'm honest, I fear the old me has lost her voice, which now just crackles like dry stones in a parched river bed, longing for drops of clear rain to slake my thirst...

So, blogging is an attempt to free that voice again, to re-connect, as Mike said, with friends and fellow would-be writers, to search for, and to restore myself again.

I've kept touch with bloggers far and wide, through the Book of Face, and have messaged them privately, from time to time, connecting still, reaching out, being supportive, being there, feeling cared for.

But that connection with my real self, the inner voice, the Free Child, and Little One, did not inhabit FB.

She's been a bit quiet in fact, wanting to play, longing for the flying tippy-tappy of fast fingers on loose keys for some time.

So, it's been exciting to ponder about where we take this multi-coloured, multi-faceted vehicle, a bit like a much loved episode of Scooby-Doo, gathering heroes and heroines along the way, and few villains, I hope.

In this vein, Toni and Saz both play the role of Velma, hard-working, intelligent, problem-solving, responsive.   Daphne was usually the one falling down holes, danger-prone, so that's more my character, although I also have Velma's bat-like sight.   Where are you going with this, Fhina?!

"Only connect!", wrote E.M. Foster in the novel, Howards End.   Reach out to others in a meaningful way, take them under your wing, give them support and connection, strive to be your better self.

But it also means to make a meaningful connection with your authentic self, which is, in fact, the goal of therapy. 

Blogging and writing can help us to know ours and others' natures better;  to understand what we can and cannot change.   Writing and reading blogs empowers us to appreciate more that we are not alone in making mistakes, failing to unmask villains earlier, suffering nightmare bosses and gaslighters, and marrying 'the wrong one'.

Blogging means we are not alone in this.

Trust me, I'm a therapist!


Fhina.