I started this blog on March 22 as “A Little Something I am doing for myself” with a challenge to myself to post something every day for 50 days.  Well  this is day 50 and I managed to post something on all of those 50 days except for maybe one or two.  So while it wasn’t perfect, I can honestly say I have met my challenge.

On the second day, I framed my challenge as “A cleansing breath” that I needed to do to help me get my zen back and begin focusing on the positive things in life instead of the ridiculous things that we allow to take control of our lives, that I allow to take control of my life.  And so I set off on the challenge toward “pouring my energy into artistic reation”.  And that is mostly what I have done.

The beginning days were filled with heartfelt posts, introspective in nature and quite cathartic. At first I was mostly looking back, then I started focusing on transitions and moving forward.  This was my soul trying to heal itself, and it has been working.

Quickly along the way I traveled to San Francisco and met up with a dear old friend. I also networked with some new folks, and tried out some wonderful food while I was there.

Then when I got back, I switched gears and started focusing on being on stage and in my garden, and many of the posts since then have had either my plants or what I was doing in “Little Women” as a focus.  I had rejoined the arts community in Menomonie and it was that time of year when it was time to start growing things.

Continuing on the theme of relationships, I wrote about the pleasure of being adopted as an uncle and a father, and the relationships I have with my family and my friends.  I have had a chance to talk about peace and love, reusing and remembering.

I wrote a little bit about work, but the good parts about it.  I got to share some photos from shows that my son is doing and the show that I am doing.  I even got a chance to use my blog to help mobilize the community a little bit when it was looking like the music program was about to get cut.  I have it on good advice that we may have made the difference that kept it from getting cut.

I got to share imagery of spring coming in and then I rounded it out with a posting each about the two most important women in my life, my mom and my wife.

I would have to say that this blog has given me the chance to do a little recentering, gathering my Zen, refocusing on what is important, or whatever you want to call it.  It has allowed me at least an hour a day to put energy into something that I wanted to put energy into and to do so every day.

Along the way, I have learned a few things.  I used my analytics to watch the way that people interact with my little blog.  I check them every day.  I learned that there is a small troop of people who seem to be reading it almost every day, and on days when I have something on a special topic a whole new group of people come in.  Most of the people who have been to my blog have been here more than once.

I get a lot more spam comments than I do comments from people who are genuinely interested in the blog.  I have learned that my keyboard is dying and I have to work to get the letter g to work.  I have learned that I still use the passive voice when I write.  I know that it can take a lot of time to get the images right, but  I also have learned that the right image can kick off a blog post all on its own.  I have learned that some days I have a dozen things I want to talk about, and on some days there are very few.

It is a challenge to come up with something to say every day, and while I will not force myself to write every day, I am pretty confident that I will continue to blog.  I want to make sure that I keep this a blog about things I want to talk about, and not let it become a tool of those things that would take over the thoughts in my mind and turn them negative.

It has been a good challenge and I am glad that I did it.  I also know that I have had 50 chances to wish you PEACE!  So if you are one of the people who reads my blog, thank you and I hope you have gotten something meaningful from it.  I once again wish you PEACE!

KT

Day 50