A new friend

Morphing into Mama and I had a wonderful and very long lunch yesterday at a little bistro near my apartment. She is as fabulous as you would guess from reading her blog. She's smart, funny, gorgeous, down to earth and really nice. She's going to make a great therapist (actually, she already is a great therapist she just doesn't have the degree yet). I just wish she didn't live so far away!

Thinking back, here are the expectations I had in writing this blog:

- working on my writing
- getting over my fear of writing "in public"
- having an outlet to express my feelings about various things
- sharing my life experience with other people in the hopes that things I've learned might help someone else.
- getting feedback from people about my writing and advice on various issues in my life

I hoped people would read my blog; I feared that no one would. I was so excited when I got my first comment - Sandra will always hold a special place in my heart for being the first person to comment! Realizing that I could insert a webcounter was a revelation - I could tell when people were reading even if they weren't commenting (or maybe they just stumbled on my blog and got the hell out of there as fast as they could but at least they were visiting, if only for a minute).
It didn't occur to me that this blog would help me develop a community. I have regular commenters (besides MIM and Sandra, there's landismom, a fab writer and one of the few people I "know" that really lives their values) and I have people that stop by on occasion. Like a "regular" community, an online community consists of people you see all the time and people you see every once in awhile. I read MIM, Sandra and landismom's blogs every day. I try to stop by the others on my list every couple of days and I try to add at least one new blog each week as a way of expanding my horizons (and increasing my community). It's the community that keeps me writing - I know how disappointed I am when one of my online friends doesn't post, I don't want to disappoint my regulars!

My one concern is that I've been spending so much time with my new online friends that I'm starting to neglect my old friends a little bit. I have to keep in mind the song I learned long ago in Brownies: Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold.