my blog community

I don't follow a lot of blogs.  Most of the bloggers I started out reading when I began my own blog on AOL Journals quit long ago, and Facebook ended many of them.  I know I've found myself blogging less often since I discovered Facebook; I used to blog practically every day.  

If I notice someone has a list of blogger friends on their own site, I'll check some of those out and keep the ones that interest me.  Most of my original blogging friends are gone, but we are still friends on Facebook, so I didn't really lose them.  Over these past twenty years I've followed women who have lost their husbands, but have been able to climb out of the "valley of the shadow of death" and learn how to live their lives in a different way, make new friends, and finding out they are stronger than they thought, while always remembering and honoring that loved one who passed on.

I've seen ladies who blogged almost to the end of their cancer journeys, and I still remember them whether they lived or died.  I've learned from my blogging friends that physical and mental pain is everywhere, and that death leaves nobody behind.  I've "seen" many people unexpectedly die the day after I read their last entry.

For the last several weeks, one of my blog friends has had a sick husband who refused to go to the doctor when he wasn't getting any better.  He seemed to be failing, getting weaker every day, and I fretted about this and prayed for them when I woke up in the night, although I don't really know them; but we women can feel the pain of other women, knowing we could be, or possibly have been, in the same situation. 

Patrick Phillips, in his blog this morning, addressed an article saying that the "good old days" of blogging, where people actually had a nice little community, were past.  If you could see all the comments on my friend's blog entries about her husband these past several days, you would know there are many little communities centered around blogs.  Even big communities, in some cases, like a blogger living in Hawaii who gets an unbelievable number of comments.

I believe these communities are good for our mental health.  We are all different kinds of people, but if we want to vent about something, we can do it.  Religious, non-religious, rich and poor... we can say our piece without somebody fighting with us, and still get along.  Sometimes we need to express our pain and know somebody is listening, and it helps keep us sane.  

Long live the bloggers!