Thursday 19 July 2018

Discipline.

One of the main reasons I try to blog every day is that as I get older I find it a very useful way of disciplining myself.   I have to switch the computer on and I have to think of something to write about.   Reading and answering other people's blogs is the easy bit; sometimes it is hard to think of anything to write about oneself though.

I have always written.   In my teaching days I used to write articles for educational publications and also the odd article for a magazine.   Once I retired I lost interest in doing this so it was really very refreshing for me to be able to pick up where I left off and think about something to write each day. 

I think we gather around us other bloggers who have similar interests and this helps to generate discussions (and disagreements) and makes us really think about issues.  I expect that like me you think of the bloggers you blog with and remember them for perhaps one thing.   John I always remember for his humour and his animal escapades and these articles he writes are often peppered with  days when we learn of his work with Samaritans or we learn stories of his old nursing life.   Cro puts on delicious recipes (with photographs) and tells us such a lot about living in France.   Tom writes (often tongue in cheek) about his working life in Bath.   At the moment Rachel, having already taken us through the World Cup, is taking the hard work out of us watching the Tour de France.   From Derek I learn interesting details about the life of a Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey and from Sue life in Suffolk, and the difficulties of living through the illness and death of a dearly beloved husband.   And so it goes on.

Where else could we have these sorts of conversations, giving support where we can, forming virtual friendships with people of like minds - and all from the comfort of our armchairs?

27 comments:

Bea said...

I have never been a string writer, but I do like trying to record things that I experience in life, both positive and negative. I especially like sort of being invited into the lives of others through their blogs.

Jill said...

Reading blogs is a highlight of each day for me. I read between 5 and 10. It has been a treat each time I found a new one. I feel as though I know the writers and many commentators well. And I enjoy their company.

angryparsnip said...

So many of the people/blogs I read have become very good friends.
I so enjoy reading your post and Johns as they are usually the first on my reader.
So it is coffee with friends.

cheers, parsnip

Lesley UK said...

{ would love to have a blog, but I don't know how to set about it. When I go on my wanderings, I send a sort of travelogue to a few blog friends who I know want to read what I've written. Several bloggers (after I've left comments) have said that I should start a blog. After years of being a journalist and then a newspaper editor I really miss writing. but I honestly don't know where to start, which is ironic considering I started working with computers in 1960 (called comptometers in those days) I should be able to work out how to do it but I can't.

Sue in Suffolk said...

Writing and reading blogs is getting me through the days

Heather said...

I enjoy reading other people's blogs and must pull up my socks and post more regularly, but I always feel that my life is not as interesting. Perhaps I should pull my socks up twice and make it more interesting!

anonymous said...

WordPress.com is free and their website will walk you through the whole process

Joanne Noragon said...

I like the discipline of it the most.Voluntary though it is, we become committed.

wherethejourneytakesme said...

I enjoy reading blogs and as you say you get to know people very well without ever meeting them. I use my blog as my journal to record what I am doing and how I am feeling - I am always amazed that anyone wants to read about my daily ramblings!

Lesley UK - just sign up to Blogger or Wordpress and they talk you through step by step. You can choose your username as a separate name or use the same name you call your blog. Best to think of what you want to call it before you start and have a few back up ideas in case it has already been taken.

Ivy said...

I like reading all kinds of blogs and try to write every 2 or 3 days a post myself. There is only one negative aspect of blogging: it requires a lot of time. Some days I really spend too many hours reading and writing (among other things) on my laptop.

elf said...

You are right, dear Weaver. You and John across the ocean, Mary Moon and the Grady Doctor here in the states ... I don't blog or almost ever post, but it's like checking in with a group of friends every day (although a group in which I'm mostly invisible....).

Pipistrello said...

Today you are just like the good cook who can spin a good meal out of the proverbial empty fridge with your "discipline"! As Jenn Webster says, it is like checking in with friends who may or may not know you're there. I'm a late arrival to this blogging world and while your blog has become an integral part of your life, I had never even seen one before a year or so ago and have been surprised firstly at how long so many of you have been writing (or just reading), how many men are also opening up about the stuff in their lives and then at how enduring and supportive your virtual friendships are. Without the comments to prove otherwise, it would seem at first glance that you would not really know one another, spread as you (we) are about the globe and with such diversity, and I mean blog readers as well as writers, but the overlapping lives are there to see. Sitting here mostly on the sidelines has been like watching a virtual Venn Diagram of life unfold.

Red said...

I started blogging because I wanted to keep up my writing skills , I got much more than writing skills. As you point out there are many relationships that form. I did not realize that the friendship and social interaction would be part of blogging.

A Heron's View said...

That word DISCIPLINE always revitalises ancient sensations on my rear end that I suffered as a boy from the many canings that I received from school masters. They remain locked into my memory banks.
For many years afterwards I held onto an utter and irrational hatred of school teachers... not so now though
am glad to say and yet still the memory of pain remains just beneath the surface.

Cro Magnon said...

That's exactly how I feel about blogging. There are so many interesting and intelligent people out there; we are privileged to be a part of it all.

Barbara Anne said...

Share the wisdom, the recipes, and the humor ...

All while in our jammies or nighties if we so choose!

Hugs!

Jules said...

I love the connection and insight into the lives of a wide range of people who we wouldn't necessarily connect with in real life. It's a different kind of friendship, but a friendship nonetheless. X

Gwil W said...

Blogging? I don't really know why I do it. Maybe gets me through winter. Maybe it's because everybody around speaks German. Maybe it just the way I am.

Librarian said...

My blog started out very different and for different reasons; it has evolved and changed until it became my online diary of sorts.
Usually, my day starts checking emails and then moving over to my reading list on blogger's dashboard. More often than not, yours are the first words I read on a day, making perfect company with my morning coffee. Most blogs I read give me food for thought, wonderful photos to look at and a glimpse into ways of life very different from my own and in places all over the world.
I really would not want to miss it, and the dialogue between blog author and readers is what makes it extra special.
So far, I have not managed to meet many bloggers in person, but via email and snail mail, friendships have developed that matter a lot to me.

Derek Faulkner said...

I'm sure that we commented on something similar to this on here quite recently, but perhaps I'm wrong. I only read 4-5 blogs on a daily basis and as I have said before, I enjoy this one mostly because Pat's steadfast attitude to keep on, keeping on, in old age is always a spur for me to try and do the same. Not being an emotional person I do find the regular outpouring of emotions from various people a tad too much and I do find the fact that very few, if any, people ever contradict opinions on here. I know it's all about being of the same frame of mind and loving each other, but surely at times some readers, besides myself, must think, no I don't agree with that, perhaps they just keep it to themselves. So, people will ask, why do you read it then, well because Pat's spirit regularly gives me the kick up the bum that I need.

the veg artist said...

I don't see many people, and consider my own life to be very boring, but reading blogs gives me a line into the lives and circumstances of others. It makes me think "Do I agree with this?", "Would I be so brave?", "Can I intoduce this idea into my own life?". Realising that life is full of ups and downs for everyone is, I think, the key to surviving one's own. We see bad things happen, and brave people carrying on. It's life. It's an education, and I'm grateful to blogs!

Rachel Phillips said...

I couldn't think of a good answer about blogging and me. I write everyday and blurt out what is in my head and share it. Daft or what but I value the friendships that have come out of it.

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thelma said...

When I first started blogging it was mostly about history, which always excites;), then I started on the holidays, and then of course daily events, so a progression was made. I have become fascinated by other blogs and therefore don't write so much. Other people's blogs open ones eyes not only to the humdrum nature of life but also to how people think.

Carol said...

Pat, your question about where else we may share all these life experiences reminded me of my mother and her sisters reminiscing about life in the tiny logging town in which they were born and reared. They spoke of the neighbors in the way you mention your blogging friends. They knew who shared great recipes (not my grandmother, who was such a jealous cook that she feared competition), who had come down with scarlet fever, who went off to the big city 50 miles away. I think in times past society shared experiences directly. Electronic devices have both connected and separated us, I think, beginning with television.

Frances said...

Jill and Jules have more or less said what I feel about reading blogs and also reading the comments that they attract. I certainly feel that the people I have been reading for some years and commenting on have become " friends" in a strange way. Not sure who, out of what I think of as " the Gang" I found first, but most of the others that I read came from liking comments made, checking their blogs and carrying on reading because I like their style/way of life...whatever! I have about 20 that I look forward to checking out over my breakfast !

The Weaver of Grass said...

Seems we all do this for very similar reasons - so let's keep on the good work.
Lesley - hope you got enough info from anonymous and where the journey takes me to start the process of writing your own blog.

Thanks to you all.