Reflections

I have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time online doing what I want to do this weekend. It's great to get away and be able to do whatever I want.... and one of the things that I have been doing is reflecting.

Since I have been online a bit I have been thinking about this blog, and the history of my online presence. Back in the day .... this blog started in 2005 ... Cindy, Kari and I, (along with a few others that I can remember... but won't mention for the fear of leaving them out)... started sharing our lives on line. I think we were some of the first to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of parenting tough kids with special needs. I blogged daily. I blogged multiple times some days. I blogged about funny things. I blogged about hard things. I blogged to lesson my anxiety. I blogged about things I was really passionate about.

Bart referred to my blog as "barf on a page" as I seldom edited, it was full of errors, and I basically just did a brain dump to the world. The support I received from reading comments and the blogs of others kept me sane.

Some of the blog posts I wrote were brilliant... Some were definitely not. Some borderlined on inappropriate. But what was important is that it was my place of support. Since then, I got busy and didn't blog much. Cindy closed down her public blog. Kari went to using Facebook as her primary posting mechanism. We are all still friends, but the daily glimpse into each others lives isn't the same.

Now there are some amazing bloggers out there who are doing a much better job of blogging. Their kids are the ages of the kids ours were back then.... but they are much smarter and sophisticated. They started their blogs with the idea that they would be read by others (I know, a novel thought). Their blogs look great (technology has come a long way). They proofread and think through their posts. They are followed by many more people than we are.

But I am thrilled to see the blogs of people from that next generation out there challenging us and each other, encouraging their peers, and sharing the passion that I have in a way that relates much better to the younger target population. Folks like Lisa Qualls and her blog One Thankful Mom. This woman I have met in person and heard her speak, met her children. They have a phenomenal story and she inspires me daily.

I spoke to Shannon Dingle, from Dinglefest, on Facebook this afternoon, after devouring several of her blog posts. Her writing is amazing. She spoke at Refresh last year, but we didn't get to meet. We are now two hours apart and I'm determined to meet her.

One of the most popular bloggers of late is Mike Berry of Confessions of an Adoptive Parent. He podcasts, blogs, speaks, writes books.... and does it all in such a more polished way than what we did 10 years ago. He also was at Refresh.

I'm sure there are many more. Many of them are my Facebook friends. All of them are folks that I admire.

It seems weird to be a generation removed from those in the trenches and to kinda be an outsider to the cool group now.

But maybe the picture above is worth it.... the grandparent club isn't a bad one... maybe not as cool, but definitely has it's perks!