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I made it! With YOUR help I made it to my 1 Year Blogging Anniversary! I almost gave up a couple times, fell behind and got overwhelmed. But what kept me here was YOU. When I started the Blogging 101 class I came to see Word Press not as just another blogging site on the internet, but an honest to goodness neighborhood. And I can’t think of neighborhoods without thinking of Mr. Rogers whom I loved.

About neighborhoods Mr. Rogers said:

I imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person. There have been so many stories about the lack of courtesy, the impatience of today’s world, road rage and even restaurant rage. Sometimes, all it takes is one kind word to nourish another person. Think of the ripple effect that can be created when we nourish someone. One kind empathetic word has a wonderful way of turning into many.

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And that’s exactly what I found here at Word Press. Your words have nourished my heart and soul in ways you will never know. I’ve learned SO much about myself and about you this year. I’ve come to realize our most important function in life is to help each other see just how unique each one of us is.

Each one of us has something in our hearts and minds and souls that no one else has. I fancy myself an emotional archaeologist of sorts. I’ve been digging around in the cavern of my soul a lot the last ten years. And one thing I’ve learned is that everyone one of us has a story to tell. And everyone of us has a story hidden somewhere inside that if others knew it, it might break their hearts. The truth is, if it matters to you, it matters to me because I love and care about you all.

While I’ve been digging around in my cave I’ve come across one thing especially I felt was a true treasure. The greatest gift you can ever give to someone else is your honest and true self. Whenever we enter into a relationship with another person, we bring with us all we are, all we ever were. And while I was sure before that I knew what it means to love both the beautiful and the not-so-beautiful in people, I’ve been discovering this year the only true way to do that is by accepting myself for who I am: the good parts AND the bad.

And you all have helped me do that. I’ve discovered pieces of myself that have been missing since before I married. I can honestly say I feel much more like me after a year of blogging therapy (!) than I have for a very, very long time. Every kind word spoken on my blog or in comments on yours has helped to build back up that fragile self-esteem that has been so weakened in my life over the years. You have no idea just how much your words have meant to me. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This blogging neighborhood is very big! But there are some neighbors who live around my block who have been instrumental in kicking my keister in the direction it needed to go to LEARN these things. There are others who have so fed my heart with their writing it brought something back to life in me. So here’s a special SHOUT OUT to them. I hope you’ll stop by their blogs sometime and get acquainted.

Plato — Plato’s Groove
Fimnora — Quantum Hermit
Jane — Making it write 
Michelle — Random_Michelle
Colleen — Freeing My Muse
Christina — The Rolling Writer
Linda — Spiritual Dragonfly
Bridget — The happy Quiter
Badfish — Badfish Out of Water
Heavy Cloud — Aliensoulmates
Ruth, Lori & SueBe — Praypower4today
S. Thomas Summers — Writing With Some Ink and a Hammer
(I HAD to stay to read his poems!)

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One more quote from Mr. Rogers:

Human relationships are primary in all of living. When the gusty winds blow and shake our lives, if we know that people care about us, we may bend with the wind . . . but we won’t break.

That goes for the friendships we’ve made on here as well. And I thank you all for the parts you’ve played in my life this year. You have been such a blessing to me…

Love you guys!