Why Do We Bloggers Blog?

Good Question! Why DO we bloggers "blog"?  I ask myself that question almost every time I sit down here at my computer.  Why am I doing this? Who is this really for? Is it for me? Or is it for YOU, my faithful "followers" (readers)? Is it some kind of personal "therapy"...or perhaps is it for "posterity" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/posterity:

 "Definition of posterity:

1: the offspring of one progenitor to the furthest generation

2: all future generations

 As I have written in my opening statement at the top of the page, here is my original purpose and intent for writing this blog:

"Welcome to my "Open Window"...a place of hope, encouragement, and adventure as we journey down the road from "Closed Doors" to the new opportunities God places in our pathway. I hope you will take the time to go back and follow the trail of mixed blessings and fears, failures and triumphs from the past and side-trips in the present. Perhaps it will conjure up some of your own special memories, and be an invitation for you to share with others. 

I look forward to spending this time with you!"

In my mind, as I began to write this blog almost ten years ago, it was my hope that this place would be a place where friends could come together to share hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, tears and laughter, and hopefully be encouraged in the process. I didn't start out with the idea of always sharing so many photographs, but then my brother gave me a digital camera, and that opened up a whole new world to me...and to you...for better or for worse! LOL.  Now I view the world always looking for something that will make a great picture! 

  Like this squirrel in the tree just above the bird feeder. He was scolding me this morning when I stepped out on the deck because all I put in the feeder was "safflower seed", and he does not like that kind of seed!!

He just sat there and scolded and scolded.  I can't help it if the store was out of the other kind of birdseed that he likes.  I promised to go back and get some soon.  Although I reminded him that the birdfeeders ARE for the BIRDS, not the squirrels! They have PLENTY of acorns and pine cones to eat around here...

This "Lonesome Dove" doesn't seem to have a care in the world...

"I'm sitting on top of the world

Just rollin' along, just rollin' along

And I'm quittin' the blues of the world

Just singin' a song, just singin' a song"

 (song by Al Jolson)

Maybe we bloggers blog because we see life through a different kind of lens, and we want to share it with everyone else.   We also like to warn people about the "webs" of life, before they happen to walk through them and get tangled up in a mess...

I guess it wasn't too windy on this foggy morning, and Mr. Spider was able to make his web right there under the rooster's tail on the weathervane.   Or maybe this rooster has been in "quarantine too long" and  needs to get back to work...he's collecting spider webs! LOL.

  On this particular morning I just wanted to step out on the deck and look at the fog on the pond. There's something interesting and enchanting about a foggy morning.  I really wasn't expecting to see anything but the fog....and then these two Sand Hill Cranes came flying out of nowhere and swooped down across the water (I know you can barely see them, but they are there in the middle if you look hard enough.

 And then they swooped back up and around and flew right back around the bend behind the island and up, up and away and out of sight.  I know you still can't see them, but they are up in the air in the middle of the screen, very faint...but they are there. They totally took me by surprise, and I was lucky to get these two pictures... I'm sorry they aren't better for you to see...but again...you are looking at the world through my lens now...so just humor me and pretend you can see them.

One thing about blogging and social media that I've loved is that I've made so many new friends in many parts of the country and even the world. Some of you I have even had the great joy and privilege to meet in person...Like our dear Terri D'Orsaneo from "Your Friend From Florida"  , who just had a knee replacement done yesterday, and she is doing great and hoping to go home today. So wonderful that our thoughts and prayers were answered on her behalf!

And recently on Facebook, one of my FB  friends (and actually a very dear "old" friend that I've known since high school days) had asked the question if anyone else had read the book, "A Land Remembered", which is a kind of historical fiction account of how life was in the early pioneer days of Florida.  I stated that I had not read the book yet, but would look for it at our library when it opens back up. Others also talked about the book and how great it was, etc., etc.  Well, lo! and Behold! This book arrived in the mail the other day...totally unexpectedly, in a box from Amazon!  Some dear soul actually ordered this book and had it sent to me. I think I know who sent it because she's the only one who had my address as far as I know...but of course no one is confessing to this surprise gift...and I can only say, "Thank you, Lord" for Your blessings on me, and for good friends who do neat and sweet things to bless me.  I am now reading the book each evening (I try to discipline myself to reading books in the evening after all my other "work" is done, unless I just can't help it and have to take time out of my so busy schedule to read it all day long...LOL)  It is very good, and I am enjoying it! I am enjoying it even more because it was so unexpected and another wonderful blessing.

I really do love stories like this one, because I enjoy reading the early history of our state...and how primitive it really was back even still during the mid to late 1800's.  When the author describes the forests and the scrub and the rivers, I can literally envision exactly how it must have been, because of the remote areas that we have enjoyed living in, like the Ocala National Forest where our last home was. And really, there are still some pretty "primitive" areas right around where we live now.

Like this area where we currently like to walk. It is actually a planned neighborhood development, but it never "developed". There are very few houses in that area, and most of it looks like this:

 I kept wondering what this particular plant was that was very ugly and dry in the winter with no green on it, and then all of a sudden it started getting green again.  I looked it up and it is called "Scrub Rosemary". It is not the kind of herbal rosemary that you are familiar with, and it is not edible.  But apparently it is endemic only to certain parts of Florida. 

There are actually some parks in Florida where you can take hikes through the  "Rosemary Scrub".  But here where we live we walk through this "free park" every day and didn't even know it was something special. But now I do, and so do you!

Here is a link to more information. https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/endemic-rosemary-scrub 

If you want to see this plant, come take a walk with me, and see it in person, instead of through "my lens".

The most important reason for blogging for me is to share how I view life through the lens of God's Word, The Bible. I don't try to preach, and I am not claiming to be a great Bible scholar or teacher. But as we begin to look at God's world through the lens of His Word, it helps us to understand so much more of what is happening around us...and it takes away the fear and anxiety of wondering why these things are happening. 

And so to close out this little "soliloquy" "an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play".(although I am not actually speaking my thoughts out loud...)  Let me close by sharing these words from Psalm 121 for today's meditation:

"1.  I will lift up my eyes to the hills, 

From whence comes my help?

2.  My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

3.  He will not allow your foot to be moved;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

4.  Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber not sleep.

5.  The Lord is your keeper;

The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

6.  The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7.  The Lord shall preserve you from all evil,

He shall preserve your soul.

8.  The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in 

from this time forth, and even forevermore."

And so, dear friends in Blogland, I am sure you may also have your own particular reasons for blogging...and we each have our personal interests and joys and ideas as to what blogging should be all about. The important thing is to enjoy each other...respect each other...give everyone a feeling of "welcome" when they come to visit you on your blog,  so that they will want to come back again and again.  Today I didn't offer you a cup of tea, but sometimes I do...if you'd been here on Mother's day you could have had some apple pie.  Here I am, being surprised by a candid photo from my hubby while I was preparing the pie to bake:

 But if I knew it was you coming in the door, I would have said, "Come on in and chat with me,  and I will put on a pot of tea"...

So, y'all come! 

Have a blessed and wonderful day my friends!

This is why I blog.

How about you?