My One Year Blogiversary!

My One Year Blogiversary!

About a year ago, I decided that I’d had enough of bad news. Not like news-worthy bad news, just bad news like:

  • sorry, you didn’t get the job
  • nice book proposal, but we can’t publish it because you are not famous
  • no, we don’t want to run that article

and so on. Minor bad news, news that’s only bad for writers who have this nagging urge to have someone read what they have written.

And then, I realized that I was six or twelve years behind the times.

{this is actually more than 2 years ago, but it captures an essential writing mama setup: the coffee, the haggard face, the child in the lap.}

I realized, I can make my own good news.

And so this blog was born. I’ve tried to post something–even if only an image or a list–every day, and doing so has been more helpful than I thought possible. Knowing that someone would be reading (even if only my mom and my husband) kept me writing, and doing it every day, well, kept me doing it every day. Regularly. Which makes writing easier. I’ve never been one to consistently keep much of a journal, bit knowing that, say, Nancy V. would be reading? That kept me writing.

There’s one other thing: blogging can be an exercise in paying attention. It makes me ask, as I go around living and breathing and reading and eating:

  • what is interesting/beautiful/ugly/strange about this?

and in asking questions

  • why does this book/object/article/idea call forth such a strong response from me?

and even in something like empathy

  • how might other people hear/interpret this? will it make sense? will it encourage people? what will it do?

So I have to say, friends, that I am grateful for your gentle readership. Thank you for your comments and your emails–I read and treasure each one.

Having the chance to write–and to be read–every day!–has become good news enough for me.

If you enjoy RachelMarieStone.com, would you consider sharing it–or your favorite posts–with a friend or “liking” Rachel Stone-Eat With Joy on Facebook?

About Rachel Stone

I write about food, family, faith, justice, and joy at my blog, on Christianity Today's website, and elsewhere, including at Books & Culture, Sojourners, and Relevant. My book, Eat With Joy: Redeeming God's Gift of Food, is forthcoming from @IVPress in early 2013. Follow me @eatwithjoy on Twitter or "like" us on FB (see sidebar.)

7 Responses »

  1. “blogging can be an exercise in paying attention” What a great piece of insight, Rachel.

    Glad I could be here to help celebrate the first blogiversary!

    Tim

  2. Congrats on your blogiversary! I’ve been very impressed with your ability to post so frequently. Your family definitely aren’t the only ones reading!

  3. Congratulations Rachel ! I have been enjoying all of the interesting topics that you have been putting on here, its the highlite of my evenings. I trust you will never run out of ideas because you are one young women who is interested in many things,plus you are involved in doing them. Your family are the lucky ones who get to eat those beautiful dishes that you post on here. Keep up the good work.

    Nancy

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s