52 Card Project 2022: Week 17: Blogging

I got an email from LiveJournal noting that April 27, 2022 is the 20th anniversary of my setting up my LiveJournal.

So I've been thinking about this, and about what starting to blog on LiveJournal and later Dreamwidth opened up in my life.

As I had noted in my very first entry, I had kept a daily personal journal for 25 years at the time I started my LiveJournal. So I was very familiar with the process of writing about my life.

What was different and what proved to be almost seductive was that for the first time in 25 years, I got reactions to what I was writing.

I wrote about my family, about parenting, about my fandom obsessions, about writing, about my struggle to cook for my family. I wrote about politics. I wrote about all our family rituals (May Day, 12th Night, etc.). I wrote about my karate journey, from white belt to black belt. I wrote about depression. I wrote about whatever I was thinking about. Eventually, I wrote about Rob's illness and death.

Twenty years ago was a more innocent age, and I would probably make different decisions about how frankly I spoke about things if I had known then what I know now when starting to write. But for the most point, opening my life in this way has been a blessing, and I have made so many remarkable friendships. Online friendships ARE real ones.

The background of the collage includes text from my very first entry, and the color green is the green I used in all the icons I created. Otherwise, it shows various things that have cropped up in my journal over the years. I certainly didn't have room to include them all. I think I may create a separate Soulcollage card for "Blogger." Edited to add: And I have done so, here.

Blogging



Click here to see the 2022 52 Card Project gallery.

Click here to see the 2021 gallery.

New Soulcollage Card: The Blogger

After finishing my digital collage card for the week, I thought the subject was important enough to make it a soulcollage card, too.

The Blogger - Committee Suit
I am the One who spins a network of discussions and friendships out of written words, chosen thoughtfully and posted digitally. I use my words to reflect upon my life, obsessions, annoyances, loves, and family and thus spark conversations that open my heart to the world. I follow the principle: I told no lies and of the truth all I could.



I had the idea early on of framing the card with some of my key icons. I finished it up pretty quickly, and then about a half-hour later went back and added some of my most frequently used tag phrases.